Aston Villa closing in on Man City European record ahead of Nottingham Forest European semi-final

Aston Villa are hunting down European honours as they head to the City Ground on Thursday for an all English Europa League semi-final.

Alongside Unai Emery’s men battling for a return to the Champions League through the Premier League - they are set for their second European last four clash in the last three years.

Their impressive European exploits under Emery have continued, having reached the Conference League last four and been in the latter stages of the Champions League last season.

Now they face a Forest side who have been struggling in the Premier League but have excelled in Europe under former Wolves chief Vitor Pereira.

The main task on Thursday is to take a lead into the second leg at Villa Park seven days later - but there are a few obscure records and statistics up for grabs at the same time.

This season, Villa have won a total of eleven European matches, only Porto, who won the same amount in the 2010/11 season, Atletico Madrid in 2011/12 who won 13, and Chelsea in 2018/19, who picked up 12 victories, have won more in a single season.

Elsewhere, heading into their semi-final on Thursday, Villa have won nine games in a row in the competition.

A victory on Thursday evening would equal a record held by Manchester City. Between May 2023 and March 2024, City won ten games in a row in Europe.

That is a record for an English side in a European competition.

One record is already held by the Villa chief Emery - who is the master of the Europa League.

This will be Emery’s seventh European semi-final since 2009/10 - and no other manager has been in more.

And what bodes well for Villa is that Emery has progressed in each of his last four semi-finals.