Ceemo

No not quite , as Betis, Rangers and Sparta Prague are all in the same group and the same applies to Ajax and AEK Athens and only one in both groups can drop down to the Conference. Hopefully we can top the group as it would be very useful to have 3 months to concentrate on domestic matters. The draw for the Round of 32 is on Monday week. If we top the group, the draw for the Round 16 would be until the Round of 32 is completed.

Just Betis, Rangers and Ajax probably the ones to avoid, however the Greek sides in Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens are all decent footballing sides and wouldn't be simple ties at all. Sparta Prague would also be a tricky tie.

UEFA Conference League permutations after tonight also: Group A: Lille and Slovan Bratislava are both qualified for the knockouts. Lille are 1pt clear ahead of the final group game and should finish top with a home game against the minnows KI. Group B: Gent and Maccabi Tel Aviv are both qualified for the knockouts. Gent are 1pts clear and they face each other in Serbia in the last group game. Group C. Viktoria Plzen are qualified for the Last 16. Dinamo Zagreb are 2pts clear of Astana and Ballkani and just need to avoid defeat to at home to Ballkani. Ballkani need to beat Zagreb and hope that Astana don't beat Plzen. Astana qualify if they beat Plzen and Ballkani beat Zagreb. Group D. Club Brugge and Bodo/Glimt are both qualified for the knockouts. They play in Bruges in the last game. Bodo/Glimt have to win by 2 goals to win the group. Group E: Villa's group. Avoid defeat to Zrinjski or Legia fail to beat AZ and Villa win the group. Legia qualify if they avoid defeat to AZ whilst, AZ need to beat Legia. Group F: Fiorentina have qualified for the knockouts. They win the group if they avoid defeat to Ferencvaros. Ferencvaros win the group with a win over Fiorentina but will also qualify if they get a draw. Genk qualify if they beat Cukaricki and Ferencvaros lose to Fiorentina and overturn a goal difference of two. Group G: PAOK have qualified for the Last 16 and Eintracht Frankfurt have qualified for the play-off round and will face on of the Europa League teams. Group H: Nordsjaelland and Ludogorets sit on 10pts and Fenerbahce on 9pts. If Fenerbahce win their final game, they qualify regardless of the other result. Nordsjaelland qualify if they avoid defeat to Ludogorets. Ludogorets qualify if they draw and Fenerbahce draw, otherwise they need to win.

So after tonight results this is state of play in the teams to drop down from the Europa League. Group A - Olympiacos and TSC face off in Greece on the last matchday. Olympiacos need to avoid defeat whilst TSC need to win. Group B - Ajax will play AEK in the last game. AEK need to avoid defeat, whilst Ajax have to win. Group C - All to play for. If Aris Limassol beat Sparta Prague by 2 goals, they go to the Conference. If Sparta Prague avoid defeat by 2 goals or draw, they are in the Conference League. A victory for Sparta Prague, would mean that the loser of Real Betis and Rangers would drop into the Conference League. If if is a draw, Rangers must hope that Sparta Prague don't win. Betis go to the Conference if they lose and Sparta win. Group D - Sturm Graz and Rakow Czestochowa are level on points and head to head. Sturm Graz are 1 goal better on goal difference. Whomever gets the better result on the last matchday, qualifies for the Conference League. Group E - Union St-Gilloise sit in the spot at the moment and if they fail to beat Liverpool and Toulouse don't lose to LASK, they will be in the Conference League. If St-Gilloise lose, then LASK can get a Conference League spot with a win over Toulouse. Toulouse drop into the Conference League, if Union St-Gilloise beat Liverpool and Toulouse lose to LASK. Group F - Villarreal and Maccabi Haifa have to play next week in their 5th game of the group, but the conference spot will still come down to the last game between Panathinaikos and Haifa. Panathinaikos will only need a draw, while Haifa have to win. Group G - Servette are moving into Conference League. Group H - Qarabag and Molde are both on 7pts going into the last group games. Qarabag lead the head-to-head so Molde must better Qarabag's result in the last group game. Group C is probably the one to keep an eye on. Betis or Rangers could easily drop down and Ajax could also move over, but nothing essentially to be too worried about.

Looked a stonewall penalty for Ukraine at the end. Not sure how Italy survived it, but they qualify for the Euros.

Subbed off on 71 minutes. Good bit of strapping on his left leg. He grimaced a bit coming off. Hopefully just a bit of tiredness and nothing more.

Emi finally has conceded a goal for Argentina, ending a run of something like 650 minutes without being beaten.

Played the full 90 minutes last night in Belgium's 1-0 win over Serbia.

Subbed off on 63 minutes. Seemed to come through it ok.

Starts for the under 21's tonight!

Just keeping an eye on our rivals in the Conference League. As mentioned above, Bas Dost collapsed in the final minute as NEC Nijmegen led 2-1 against AZ in injury time. The game was abandoned and the result may stand. It would be Alkmaar's first league defeat of the season. Zrinjski could only draw 2-2 against Posusje and are now second in their league, 6 points off the leaders. Legia's poor from in Poland continued as they lost 3-1 to Stal Mielec. They had 26 shots to 3 and somehow were beaten. 4 consecutive defeat in the League for Legia and after a start of getting 20 points out of a possible 24, they now sit in 6th, 7 points off the leaders.

Newcastle have also started the process of climbing the divisions, so expect them to be up there in the coming years. A lot of complaining also of the Champions League format in the past few weeks, so they'll probably change that too to make it identical to the men's version and have the same teams year in and year out.

Says in that article that if Zaniolo's lawyers prove that he didn't gamble on football matches, he would only be facing a fine.

Until we can find a top-half Premier League standard midfielder, we are at nothing really. It's as bad as it's ever been in my lifetime for sure. Some decent results at youth level, but the players aren't quite progressing through at club level apart from Ferguson. It's one thing getting beat by the likes of France and Netherlands, but to be comprehensively beaten by Greece twice, shows that they are basically are pot 4/5 team now and will be for the foreseeable future. People always go on about that they'll give the job to a Steve Bruce or Sam Allardyce type, but just the put the job up and see who applies for it and then go from there. In other news, Savo Milosevic got his first win as Bosnia-Herzegovina boss as they beat Liechtenstein. Expect to see him at the return game in Mostar when Villa play Zrinjski again in December.

Regarding the Euros, Villa Park will probably get 4 games. As it's currently planned: 6 games in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (4 group games, 1 Last 16 and 1 Quarter-Final). Wales are hoping that Cardiff will host the opening game. 5 games in Northern Ireland (4 group games, 1 Last 16) 28 games will be held in England around 6 venues. Wembley will have both semi-finals and final. There is a doubt over Casement Park in Belfast of whether that will ever get built, so it's possible more games could be spread around.

Skip to 44:16 on the video. The Trinity Road Stand really was beautiful.

Starting tonight for the Under 21's. Good to see him back.

Just noticed that for prize money from the Conference League that you get €500k for every victory in the group stage and €166k for every draw. So far including having qualified for the group stage, Villa have earned €4.45 million (£3.85m). Miles off Champions League money obviously where every victory in the group stage nets around €2.8m (£2.42m) alone. Qualifying for the Champions League group stage gets you around €15m (£13m) and the TV rights for that earns you a lot more. Still, no harm in earning a little bit extra here and there.

Seen Zrinjski's match against AZ. Mad game where there were completely dominated against in the first half and got two out of the blue goals and suddenly they were a different team. Started 7 Croatians against AZ, so as you would expect, they are a decent technical side and they can zip the ball around and are quite inventive around the box, but their defence doesn't seem particularly strong physically and second balls can be won against them in midfield too. They are a threat however from set-pieces due to pretty good deliveries. They sat back mostly in that game in a 4-5-1 which switched to a 4-3-3 when attacking but they often left large gaps in midfield in transition. On paper this should be a comfortable win for Villa, but Europe is difficult as you are playing sides that are used to winning every week and so their confidence levels are extremely high and then with them coming to a Premier League ground, they will look to impress. Our injury situation is starting to become a real concern but hopefully we will have more than enough for tomorrow night.

No they can't have any influence over Vitoria and no transfers directly or indirectly until September 2024. Presumably with the partnership with Zed FC, the plan was possibly to bring some of their youth to Villa and then send them to Vitoria. That now can't be done and players from Zed FC will have to move directly to Villa or Vitoria. For this to work in the long term one of the two clubs will have to miss out on Europe on a consistent basis.

Vitoria are set to appoint their third coach this season after firing the second guy this evening. Despite all that, they still sit 7th in the league this season.

Still injured? Would be useful for some squad rotation with the amount of games ahead.

Tim isn't included in the Conference League squad either. Pity, as he could have got some minutes in it. Not sure what the injury he has at the moment but at least he is around the squad for League and domestic cup games.

Premier League squad has been confirmed: You have to have at least 8 homegrown players to name a full 25 man squad. Villa have 7 but only name 23 anyway. Duran is the only senior player included in the under-21's. Mings and Buendia are named despite no chance of playing before January. 23 Squad players (*Home grown) Bailey, Leon Patrick Buendia Stati, Emiliano Cash, Matthew Stuart* Chambers, Calum* Dendoncker, Leander Diaby, Moussa Digne, Lucas Francisco Torres, Pau Kamara, Boubacar Bernard Konsa, Ezri Ngoyo* Lenglet, Clement Nicolas Laurent Martinez Romero, Damian Emiliano* McGinn, John Mings, Tyrone Deon* Moreno Lopera, Alexandre Olsen, Robin Ramsey, Jacob* Santos Silva, Diego Carlos Soares De Paulo, Douglas Luiz Tielemans, Youri Marion Traore, Bertrand Isidore Watkins, Oliver George Arthur* Zaniolo, Nicolo U21 players (Contract and Scholars) Afoka, Chisom Kenneth Alcock, Todd Rees Asante-Boakye, Maxwell Kwesi Barber, Jayden Christopher Barnes, Mikell Nathan Leon Barry, Louie Mark Bogarde, Lamare Trenton Chansey Borland, Aidan Gerald Brannigan, Cole Patrick Broggio, Benjamin David Burchall, Ajani Alexander Edward Carroll, Theodore James Chrisene, Benjamin Joshua Duerden, Archie Duran Palacios, Jhon Jader Ealing, Frankie Edwards, I-Lani Feeney, Joshua Philip Hammond, Alexander Hart, Taylor-Jay Phillip Hayden, Kaine Kesler Iroegbunam, Timothy Emeka Jimoh, Jamaldeen Katsukunya, Thierry Alfred Farai Kellyman, Omari Jamian Lewis, Samuel Jack Lott, Max Matthew Lutz, Charlie Ethan Lynch, Luka John Marschall, Filip McDowell, Jack McWilliams, Ashton Tyler Mitchell, Dylan Reiss Moore, Kobei Moreland, Calum Francis Mulley, Trai-Varn Divinche Munroe, Finley Christopher Ryan O'Reilly, Aaron Christopher O'Reilly, Tommi Dylan Onuchukwu, Abube-Calvin Patterson, Travis Pavey, Charlie James Pierre, Kyrie Jay Victor Proctor, Sam Adrian Revan, Sebastian Emmanuel Richards, Rico Dean Scott Rowe, Edward James Rowe, Triston Tye Simpson, Ewan Mark Smith, Kerr David Swinkels, Sil Laurentius Timson, Nile Jordan Joseph Wilson, Rory Wright, James Thomas Young, Kadan Christophe Zych, Oliwier

Seems like he won't be featuring in the Conference League group stage. UEFA rules are that you can name any players under 21 provided they have been been at the club for at least two years. Kellyman was only signed in March 2022 and would therefore have to be registered in the main squad, but all the spots are taken after Lenglet joined to replace Mings.