Club Brugge boss fires warning ahead of Aston Villa rematch

The Belgian club inflicted Villa’s first setback of the Champions League campaign when they claimed a 1-0 home victory in a match made infamous by Tyrone Mings conceding the decisive penalty by picking up a goal-kick.

Now the teams meet again in the last-16 with Brugge looking to create another shock after dumping out Atalanta in the play-off round. 

But Hayen, who has seen his own stock soar thanks to the club’s impressive run, is wary of a Villa squad which now includes high-profile loan signings Axel Disasi, Marcus Rashford and three-time Champions League winner Marco Asensio.

How his team planned to stop the latter pair was a hot topic of Monday’s pre-match press conference and the Brugge boss replied: “We don’t have a specific way of stopping them.

“We are not going to point to one player because they have more than just Rashford and Asensio as quality players.

“Before they joined they still had really good results. It doesn’t change. They have more quality now in their squad which makes them stronger than before.

“Individually, they have a lot of quality, but they are often the same. They bring intensity and will bring lots of offensive quality.”

Brugge sit second in the Belgian Pro League but it is their exploits in Europe which have caught the eye earning Hayen, who three years ago was managing Haverfordwest in the League of Wales, admiring glances from other clubs on the continent.

His focus now is on getting one over on Unai Emery again.

“Their structure has stayed the same,” he said. “They do have a little bit more dynamic movements.

“For example, McGinn drops into the midfield whereas before he was playing higher. It still says the same, just different names.

“It doesn’t change the quality in their team (when players play in different positions).”

Brugge captain Hans Vanaken, who scored the winning penalty in November, added: “There are two or three more players who weren’t there. I think the system and how they play will be the same.

“It is the same coach and system. There are now new players in some positions, but everything will be the same in principle. We don’t expect much to be that different from the last game.

"Beating them in the league phase gave us confidence. It was a deserved three points and that encourages us ahead of the next two games. It is up to us to ensure we go to them with a good starting position."

The hosts will be without highly-rated left-back Joaquin Seys after he suffered injury in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Gent.