by Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has branded Juventus one of world football’s superpowers ahead of their Champions League encounter on Wednesday.
Villa will be looking at another massive scalp after beating Bayern Munich last month when Thiago Motta’s Serie A side come to Villa Park.
Despite Emery’s Premier League side having taken more points from their opening four matches, the Spaniard claims Juve will travel to Birmingham as favourites.
🗣️ About Juventus: “They are very strong defensively, not only with the ball but without the ball. They build a team, try to keep consistency and dominate matches with the ball, but defensively they try to be strong in terms of position Maybe with or without Vlahović it’s… pic.twitter.com/HZKK4eq2Uc
– Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 26, 2024
“It’s a team with Real Madrid in Spain, Bayern Munich in Germany, Paris Saint-Germain in France and Juventus,” he said. “They are perhaps the best teams in the world, historically and today.
“Watching them at Villa Park in a game we have tomorrow is fantastic. And we want to be competitive.
“These are of course three very important points, but even if we take a point, it’s good.
“Juventus are the favorites, they have more experience, they are a very good team, they have very good players and they are the favorites to make the top eight.
“We are in the Champions League and we are trying to be consistent. I hope we can play for many more years in the Champions League, now we have to try to face Juventus and be competitive. They are more or less favorites to win this competition.
Villa won their first three matches in European football’s premier club competition, but lost to Club Brugge last time out.
They remain eighth in the new league stage – with a top eight finish giving them automatic qualification for the knockout stages – and Emery says victory would put them in a good position.
“We are currently in the top eight,” he added. “Our goal is to be in the next round. We have the possibility of getting into the top eight, we will try to get it.
“Tomorrow, if we win, we might be in the running to get it, but not today.”
Emery has dismissed the idea of ​​Villa trying to re-sign midfielder Douglas Luiz from Juventus in January.
The Brazil international was sold to Juve in the summer in a bid to resolve Financial Fair Play concerns, but he has had a torrid start to life in Turin, making just two Serie A starts.
He is ruled out of a return to Villa Park due to injury.
Emery said: “I don’t understand the question. He must be happy there, he must take up the challenge with his quality and help them achieve the objective collectively.
“I don’t think he would want to leave there, but I don’t know. He’s injured so he won’t be there.
Emery said Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara were fit for the match but Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana were still missing.
