Lille sporting coordinator Sylvain Armand is making no bones about the fact that his side have the worst draw possible in the Europa Conference League in the shape of Aston Villa.
The Ligue 1 side have been drawn to face Aston Villa over two legs in the quarter-final of the Europa Conference League as their reward for putting out Sturm Graz.
Aston Villa thrashed Ajax 4-0 at Villa Park on Thursday night to progress in the competition and many are wary of Unai Emery’s men.
Lille are the side tasked with stopping the Villa juggernaut and Armand is clear that the tie is not a good one for his club and is the worst they could have got.
“Yes, it’s the worst, we can say that”, Armand said to reporters post the draw.
“Now, they are still a good team and we know that we are not necessarily favourites of course, but it is a good match to play if we want to go as far as possible in this competition.
“We have to face the big teams and this is one of them.
“They have great experience and a coach who has already won the Europa League several times.”
In addition to pushing to win the Europa Conference League, Aston Villa are looking to finish in the top four in the Premier League.
Villa’s tie against Lille is separated by a crunch Premier League clash away at Arsenal.
