Saputo: ‘Bologna aim is to be consistently in Europe’ after 2 years

Bologna President Joey Saputo hopes for a special birthday gift against Aston Villa in the Europa League this evening. ‘We weren’t ready for the Champions League, but this is more our level.’

It kicks off at Villa Park at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

There are numerous surprises in both line-ups this evening, with a great deal of squad rotation from sides who haven’t had the best start to this campaign.

Saputo hoping for Bologna birthday present

President Saputo celebrates his birthday today and is spending it at Villa Park to watch his team in action.

“I hope to get a good gift this evening from the result,” Saputo told Sky Sport Italia.

Saputo is from Canada, but has been living in Bologna for the last year and a half, which is also when the club has stepped up its performances.

“Everyone tells me that my presence is helping, I don’t know if I believe that, but I am very happy to be in Bologna and if my presence helps, I’ll be here for a long time to come.”

These teams met here last season in the Champions League, with Aston Villa emerging 2-0 winners, and now Bologna are in the Europa League thanks to their Coppa Italia triumph.

“I said last year that getting to Europe was the easy part, being here consistently is difficult, but that is our objective for this club,” added Saputo.

“We want to go as far as possible. Last season was a good experience, perhaps we weren’t ready for the Champions League then, but this is more our level and we have a chance of going through.”