Aston Villa vs Juventus LIVE: Champions League team news and line-ups as hosts target famous night

There will be no Aston Villa reunion for Douglas Luiz tonight, with the Brazilian missing out through injury.

The midfielder, who spent five seasons at Villa Park, has endured a difficult start to life at Juventus – and Villa president of football operations Monchi has admitted he would jump at the chance to re-sign his former man.

“He’s playing less than we all expected, but we’re talking about a strong player,” Monchi said.

“There are guys who arrive and impose themselves, others who need time. Patience is needed, but Douglas’ qualities are beyond discussion. He will become important for Juve.

“After his farewell, we invested and in midfield we are well placed with Tielemans, Onana, Kamara, Barkley… but I would always take Douglas back, from any club: he is very strong.”

After enjoying a perfect start to their Champions League campaign, Aston Villa slumped to their first defeat last time out, with a bizarre penalty incident costing dearly in a 1-0 defeat at Club Brugge.

Nevertheless, Unai Emery’s side have been one of the stronger performing sides in European competition so far and will hope to propel themselves back up the table with a win over Italian giants Juventus this evening.

Juventus are two without a win in the Champions League, with Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty salvaging a point on their travels to Lille earlier this month. They sit 16th in the league table going into tonight’s contest.

Just the one change for the visitors from the team that drew 0-0 with AC Milan at the weekend.

It’s an all-American switch as Timothy Weah comes in for international teammate Weston McKennie, who was left out of the squad.

As was already known, there will be no Villa reunion for Douglas Luiz, who has missed Juventus’ past five Serie A games through injury and has not recovered in time to face his former side.

Starting XI: Di Gregorio, Savona, Kalulu, Gatti, Cambiaso, Locatelli, Thuram, Conceicao, Koopmeiners, Yildiz, Weah.

Subs: Fagioli, Mbangula, Perin, Pinsoglio, Rouhi, Danilo.

Three changes for Aston Villa from the side that drew 2-2 to Crystal Palace last weekend.

Emery welcomes the returns of Boubacar Kamara, Matty Cash and Lucas Digne to the starting XI, with Ross Barkley among those dropping to the bench.

John Duran, Villa’s hero against Bayern Munich earlier this season, starts amongst the substitutes.

Starting XI: Martinez, Cash, Carlos, Torres, Digne, McGinn, Tielemans, Kamara, Bailey, Rogers, Watkins.

Subs: Olsen, Gauci, Nedeljkovic, Bogarde, Maatsen, Konsa, Mings, Barkley, Buendia, Philogene, Duran.

“Continuity of everything we have done so far. We played a good game against Milan,” Thiago Motta said. “Tomorrow we’ll play a team who are very dangerous on the counterattack.

“We have to be solid in defence and not leave space for their trequartistas. We have to be compact and defend well. We have to use the ball well when we have it.”

“We are really happy in the Champions League. We want to enjoy tomorrow with our supporters at Villa Park,” said Emery.

“Enjoy it. We want to enjoy competing and we want to enjoy winning. We are here in the Champions League trying to be consistent.

“Now is the moment we have to enjoy, we have to compete, we have to face tomorrow Juventus, we have to try to face them being competitive.”

For Juventus, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal are two long-term absentees, with both having suffered ACL injuries. Ex-Villa midfielder Douglas Costa is likely to miss out due to a muscular problem, while key attacker Dusan Vlahovic sat out the draw with Milan, though the Old Lady harbour hopes that he’ll at least be fit enough to be part of the matchday squad.

Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik also sat out last weekend’s match, while American Weston McKennie is a doubt after coming off at the weekend, with Timothy Weah and Nicolas Fagioli in line to replace him.