Aston Villa vs Celtic prediction: Villa to teach Bhoys a lesson

Both Aston Villa and Celtic have already secured at least a place in the knockout play-offs but both sides know a win on Wednesday could take them through automatically to the last 16 (8pm, TNT Sports 1).

There are nine places between the two sides in the Champions League table with Villa in 9th and Celtic in 18th but only one point separates them with one game remaining.

Villa are playing in Europe’s premier competition for the first time since the 1982/83 season when they were the defending champions and they have more than held their own – even beating six-time champions Bayern Munich in their second match back in October.

Jhon Duran scored the only goal of the game at Villa Park as Unai Emery’s side won their first three matches of the campaign. They have lost just two of their seven matches – a 1-0 defeat at Club Brugge in November before going down in Monaco by the same scoreline last time out.

Celtic have only lost once in the Champions League this season but it was a humbling one, as they were thrashed 7-1 away at Borussia Dortmund after opening their campaign with a 5-1 home win over Slovan Bratislava.

Since then, they have drawn with Atalanta, Club Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb and beaten RB Leipzig and Young Boys last time out but they can expect a tougher match against Villa on Wednesday.

This is the first time that these two sides have met in European competition but Celtic have drawn in their last three matches against English sides. The last one came against Manchester City back in 2016 when they drew 1-1 at Celtic Park, after securing a 3-3 draw at the Etihad – in a game when Raheem Sterling scored in both goals.

Villa’s only European meeting with a Scottish side came in last season’s Conference League qualifiers when they beat Hibernian 8-0 on aggregate, with Ollie Watkins scoring a hat-trick in a 5-0 win at Easter Road.

They go into the game with just one defeat in their last seven, which was that 1-0 loss in Monaco, while at home they have lost just twice all season. In the league, they were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal back in August and since then their only other defeat at Villa Park came against Crystal Palace in the Carabo Cup in October.

Celtic have only won one of their last 21 away games in the Champions League, drawing five and losing 15, and are winless in 11 since beating Anderlecht 3-0 in September 2017.

They have drawn their last two games away against Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb and go into the game with just one defeat in their last 25 matches. That came against Rangers on 2 January and is the Bhoys' only other defeat since that thrashing by Dortmund but we expect Villa to have too much, especially at home.

Football betting sites understandably have Villa as the favourites at 8/15, while you can get 5/1 on a Celtic win and 18/5 on a draw.

Aston Villa vs Celtic prediction 1: Villa to win by two goals - 7/2 Betway

Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers are both still looking for their first Champions League goals for Aston Villa after seven appearances.

Watkins has managed 10 shots, while Rogers has 14 and only one player in the entire tournament has had more shots without scoring and that is AC Milan’s Theo Hernandez who has 15.

Betting sites are offering 7/2 on Watkins scoring first and 6/1 on Rogers or you can get 1/1 on Watkins at any time and 13/5 on Rogers scoring his 11th goal for Villa since arriving from Middlesbrough in February.

Aston Villa vs Celtic prediction 2: Morgan Rogers to have over 1.5 shots on target - 10/3 Bet365

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