We preview Villa and Forest’s Europa League fixtures and Palace’s Conference League match
Football writer Ben Bloom recaps the European campaigns so far for Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace and previews their upcoming matches.
Following two nights of UEFA Champions League action, the continental football feast continues on Thursday with a full round of fixtures in Europe’s other club competitions, the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League.
Here is all you need to know about the matches involving Premier League clubs.
UEFA Europa League
Sturm Graz v Nottingham Forest
Thursday 6 November, 17:45 GMT
The opening match of Sean Dyche’s Forest tenure last month was also the first of his managerial career in the main stage of a European competition.
He immediately led his new team to a 2-0 victory over Porto, courtesy of penalties from Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus – the Brazilian’s goal taking him joint top of this season’s Europa League goalscoring charts with three.
That was Forest’s first European win since 1995 and it provided some much-needed joy for the club’s beleaguered fans after the tumultuous 39-day period with Ange Postecoglou at the helm.
Victory lifted them to 17th in the Europa League standings following an earlier shock defeat to Midtjylland.
In their two Premier League matches since, Forest have lost to AFC Bournemouth and then pushed Manchester United close on Saturday before drawing 2-2.
This will be a third consecutive Europa League tie against British opposition for Sturm Graz, who beat Rangers and then lost to Celtic. The Austrians sit fourth domestically after suffering back-to-back league defeats since that Celtic loss.
The only previous meeting between the sides came in 1983/84 when Forest knocked Sturm Graz out of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Thursday 6 November, 20:00 GMT
It was quite the upset when Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles beat Villa in the last round of Europa League fixtures, given Unai Emery’s team had won all five of their previous matches across all competitions.
However, a missed Emiliano Buendia penalty meant Villa lost their perfect European record, slipping to 10th in the standings after victories over Bologna and Feyenoord in their opening two matches.
“We have broken the good form we have and I hope we recover quick,” said Emery after.
His wishes were heeded with a notable victory over Manchester City in Villa’s next outing, before suffering a lack of good fortune in their defeat at Liverpool on Saturday.
The good news for Emery’s side is that they remain on a four-game winning run at home in all competitions, while Maccabi Tel-Aviv are yet to taste success in Europe this season.
The Israeli side drew their opener against PAOK, but lost their next two matches to leave them 32nd in the Europa League table.
Their domestic performances have made for better reading, with back-to-back wins keeping them top of the Israeli league.
UEFA Conference League
Crystal Palace v AZ Alkmaar
Thursday 6 November, 20:00 GMT
A jubilant mood at Selhurst Park for Palace’s first home match in a major European competition soon turned sour last month when Oliver Glasner’s side suffered a shock defeat to Cypriot Cup winners AEK Larnaca.
It was a match that Palace had been expected to win, but defeat dropped them to 16th in the Conference League table, despite them winning their opener against Dynamo Kyiv in Poland.
The Eagles have since suffered another loss, at Arsenal, before beating Liverpool in the EFL Cup and Brentford in the Premier League, with Jean-Philippe Mateta taking his goalscoring haul to eight in all competitions this season.
Thursday’s opponents AZ Alkmaar have also been defeated in the Conference League this season, losing 4-0 at AEK Larnaca in their opener.
Things have looked far rosier since, as the Dutch side have embarked on a five-game winning run in all competitions. They sit third in the Eredivisie.
The match will bring former Tottenham Hotspur striker Troy Parrott back to London – he has scored six Eredivisie goals for AZ in this campaign.
