Bologna host Aston Villa in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on April 9, with kickoff set for 20.00 UK time and 21.00 CEST at the Stadio Dall’Ara. It is the first time the clubs have met on Italian soil, and Bologna arrive with a long list of absentees as they try to halt Villa’s run through the competition.
Federico Ravaglia starts in goal for Bologna, while Santiago Castro is their only centre-forward. Federico Bernardeschi and Jonathan Rowe are preferred to Riccardo Orsolini and Niccolò Cambiaghi, a sign of how stretched the home side are after Martin Vitik was suspended and Lukasz Skorupski, Thijs Dallinga, Charalampos Lykogiannis and Benjamin Dominguez were ruled out injured. For a team that has already needed extra time to survive once in this Europa League campaign, the line-up underlines how much Bologna are asking of their squad.
The stakes are high because Bologna have built a strong European record this season, with one defeat, four draws and seven victories, and their only loss came against Villa in September 2025. They reached this round by eliminating Roma in the last 16, drawing 1-1 in the first leg before winning 4-3 after extra time at the Stadio Olimpico. Aston Villa were equally convincing in the previous round, beating Lille 3-0 on aggregate, and they have lost only once in the competition this season, the 2-1 away defeat to Go Ahead Eagles on October 23.
That background gives Unai Emery’s side reason to believe they can take control again. Villa sit fourth in the Premier League, one point behind Manchester United and five points ahead of Liverpool, and Emery has won the Europa League a record four times. The teams have met twice before, both times at Villa Park, where Villa won 2-0 in the Champions League in October 2024 and 1-0 in the Europa League opening phase in September 2025.
The tension in this tie is that Bologna are now trying to reverse that recent pattern without several key players, while Villa travel with only Boubacar Kamara and Jadon Sancho unavailable. They have won every Europa League game this season except the trip to Go Ahead Eagles, and another clean, controlled away performance would put them in charge before the return leg. Bologna know what they are up against; this is the first meeting between the sides in Italy, and Villa have already shown they can handle them.
