This is the first ever meeting between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv, and indeed Villa’s first game against an Israeli club.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost all four of their major European matches against English clubs – they lost two games against Stoke in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League and both against Chelsea in the 2015-16 Champions League.
This match will be played three years to the day of Unai Emery’s first game in charge of Aston Villa – they have won 12 of their 14 home European games (inc. qualifiers, D1 L1) under the Spaniard, winning all four in 2025 (three in the UEFA Champions League last season, 1-0 v Bologna this season).
Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost nine of their last 12 major European matches (W2 D1) and have kept one clean sheet in their last 23 major European games.
Only Celtic’s Sebastian Tounekti (21) has had more touches in the opposition box in the UEFA Europa League this season than Aston Villa’s Evann Guessand (19), who netted the opener in Villa’s 2-1 defeat to Go Ahead Eagles on MD3.