Aston Villa v Viking: Champions League preview, predicted line-ups & team news

Aston Villa can move closer to the last-16 places when they play host to Viking at Villa Park on Wednesday night, with a third league-stage win in the Champions League on offer.

Villa sit third on six points, with a goal difference of plus seven, after wins over Club Brugge and Fenerbahce. Viking are a different proposition on paper. They have a win, two draws and a defeat from their four European games this season, a run that includes the qualifying rounds, and the bookmakers rate this as one of the most one-sided ties of the matchday.

Villa won 3-2 away at Club Brugge on 8 September, then thrashed Fenerbahce 6-0 at home on 14 October. That is nine goals scored and two conceded, with an expected goals figure of 3.19 per game in that spell and 10 shots on target a match.

Viking drew 2-2 away and beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 at home in the August qualifier, then lost 3-1 at VfB Stuttgart on 9 September. Last Tuesday they came from behind to draw 3-3 at home with Bayern Munich. They have scored nine and conceded nine in four games, and have not kept a clean sheet.

Rotation is unlikely to be a big theme. Villa are at home, level on points with the leading pack and have a long injury list to manage, so the options are limited anyway. The hosts have a lot of bodies missing or doubtful, which restricts how much the XI can change.

Viking have a wafer-thin attack by their own numbers, averaging an expected goals figure of 0.59 across their four games while conceding 2.84. Expect them to sit deep and try to hit on the break, as they did for parts of the Bayern game.

Viking have played a 4-3-3 in all four of their games.

Aston Villa: Wright; Cash, Pau Torres, Lindelof, Mings; Kamara, Joao Gomes; Buendia, McGinn, Garnacho; Jackson

Viking: Ostbo; Falchener, Heggheim, Vevatne, Daland; Bjordal, Hansen, Middelthon; Botheim, Tripic, Christiansen

The match kicks off at 20:00 BST on Wednesday 21 October at Villa Park. It is shown on TNT Sports where selected, and we will update this page closer to kick-off if a specific channel is confirmed.

This is a single league-stage match, so there is no extra time or penalty shootout. If it is level after 90 minutes, the draw stands.