How Unai Emery's Aston Villa can emulate Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid to beat Barcelona in UEFA Champions League clash

Aston Villa travel to face Barcelona on Tuesday, sitting three points ahead of the Catalan giants in the UEFA Champions League league phase. Barcelona have endured a tough couple of weeks, losing to both Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. Can Villa inflict another defeat on Hansi Flick's side?

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The first thing to address is that Villa come into this game off the back of a very disappointing display at home on Saturday evening as they barely scraped a 1-1 draw against Fulham.

As brilliant as Villa were when they dismantled Fenerbahce and beat Manchester City in recent weeks, they were poor in a 1-1 draw against Fulham at the weekend, and after the game, manager Unai Emery was critical of his team for their inconsistency.

"It's a disappointing result, a fair result," he said.

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"We tried to keep being consistent, improving, getting the result at home. Trying to get our Villa Park, our fortress, and we are in this way. We didn't win, but we didn’t lose.

"The last matches here, through Champions League and Premier League, we are getting better, but today was disappointing because we didn’t win. The result is fair."

As Emery himself said after the Fulham draw, they now have a quick turnaround to the game against Barcelona, and this could end up being a pivotal match in their European campaign.

After starting their Champions League adventure with three wins from three, Villa have a great chance to finish in the top eight of the league phase and avoid going through the play-offs.

Earning a point in Spain, or even a win, would go a long way to getting there. It will be difficult, make no mistake, but here's how they can do it.

Attack wisely, not often

Barcelona are Barcelona. And they are Barcelona playing at home - they are going to completely dominate the ball, there's no two ways about it.

Against PSG, albeit in Paris, they had 53% of the ball. At home against Real Madrid, they had 63% of the ball. They lost both of those games.

It is not exactly a new take to suggest that to beat a Barcelona team - really at any stage over the past two decades - you will have to do so without having the majority of the ball.

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The key is to make sure you don't forget to use the ball when you have it. Too often in Flick's tenure, teams have felt that they can bore Barcelona into making mistakes, and escape with a draw or even a narrow win.

That is simply not true right now. If you allow Barcelona to dominate you for 90 minutes, the odds are they will find a way through.

That is especially true for a Villa team who have conceded more goals than any team in the Premier League's top 10 this season, aside from Xabi Alonso's gloriously chaotic Chelsea side.

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So for Villa, it is absolutely critical that they attack when the chances are there - as Real Madrid did at the Camp Nou - and we know that the chances will be there.

TNT Sports' Spanish football expert Phil Kitromilides, speaking after Barcelona's defeat in the Clasico, said: "It has highlighted that this Hansi Flick approach to football requires every single member of that Barcelona team to be at 100% in terms of their physical and mental freshness and ability.

"And if there is a drop-off, they can be gotten at. Now, when Barcelona lose the ball, they have to get it back very, very quickly or they are exposed.

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"And they have been doing that really well against other opposition. But in the Champions League, it has happened time and time again that they have been exposed.

"Hansi Flick isn't going to change his way of approaching football. This is his idea. This is how he plays. This is how he wants his team to play. They just need to better at it."

We have seen over the past couple of years that Flick's Barcelona have occasionally struggled when presented with the physical challenge that Premier League sides present, and Villa are in a great place to try and expose that flaw.

Play into Jackson

One of the key players in exposing Barcelona's infamous high line will be Senegalese forward Nicolas Jackson, who is enjoying an incredible resurgence in the Midlands.

Jackson's move from Chelsea to Villa in search of more regular first-team football always made sense. He had a prior relationship with Emery and Villa needed a regular goalscorer.

Still, few could have predicted how well it would go. Jackson has five goals in the Premier League thus far (ranking third in the division) and three more in the Champions League (the second-highest tally) as he has taken to life at Villa Park like a duck to water.

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His electric pace will be critical for Villa as they look to get in behind Barcelona. This was something they did with great effect against Manchester City, and Jackson has shown himself adept at timing his runs.

This season he has only been caught offside four times in the Premier League (the league high is 12) and once in the Champions League (the tournament high is seven).

He is not always the perfect striker, but he is far more well-rounded than he is given credit for.

Jackson's role becomes even more important when you consider the defensive injuries Barcelona are currently dealing with.

Andreas Christensen, Eric Garcia, Xavi Espart and Jules Kounde will miss this game. There are holes in the Barcelona backline when they're at full strength, and they are far from it right now.

Jackson's pace, combined with his ability to drift out wide to help create overloads, could cause Barcelona serious problems.

Have a Yamal plan

Of course, it is not just offensively where Emery will have to come up with a plan, it is defensively as well. And for as long as he wears the Blaugrana shirt, that will start with Lamine Yamal.

Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid would appear to show the way here. They rendered the superstar virtually non-existent during their win at the Camp Nou.

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Whilst much of that was down to a superb individual performance from World Cup winner Marc Cucurella - and it would be unreasonable to expect Ian Maatsen to repeat the trick - Emery can lean on his wingers or central midfielders to help double up on Yamal.

And it's not just Yamal. Madrid put pressure on Barca's midfield trio of Pedri, Rodri and Fermin Lopez.

The performances of Johan Manzambi, John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Joao Gomes will be vital here to keep the attacking unit quiet.

Because Barcelona have so many options - we haven't even mentioned Anthony Gordon or Raphinha - it will require an entire team effort.

And, crucially, it will require a slightly different plan to the one they utilised against City which resulted in them nearly entirely isolating Erling Haaland.

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Despite these defeats that they have suffered over the past few weeks, Barcelona at the Camp Nou remains one of the toughest assignments in football.

PSG were able to beat them in quite a unique way because of the way their team operates under Luis Enrique.

Emery can take lessons from that, but to recreate the game plan entirely across 90 minutes is unrealistic.

Mourinho's blueprint might be easier to adopt: defend in a compact, organised way and take your chances on the counter when they are afforded to you.

Emery and his Villa team have given fans many memorable European nights over the past few years. Could another be coming on Tuesday?

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