Columbus Crew vs Aston Villa Prediction: Aston Villa aiming to make it three in three

The Columbus Crew will go head to head against Aston Villa at the Lower.com Field in the Club Friendlies. Aston Villa would like to make it three in three of their preseason friendlies' wins. Who will come out on top after 90 minutes?

Columbus Crew sits third in the Eastern Conference with 43 points from 23 matches. Even with the midweek 2-1 defeat to Atlanta United, they have enjoyed an excellent campaign to date. The side will play a friendly against Villa before resuming MLS action on August 25 versus Philadelphia Union. The league has been suspended due to the 2024 Leagues Cup, which includes all of the MLS and Liga MX sides. They won the MLS Cup last year under Wilfried Nancy, defeating Los Angeles FC in the final 2-1. They have had an excellent July so far by beating Nashville SC, Toronto, and Los Angeles FC. They were held by Charlotte and lost to Atlanta United, however, they are expected to be at a physical advantage against Villa, who stand at the start of their pre-season. The difference in class between the two teams, however, may be immense.

Hagen; Moreira, Camacho, Cheberko; Farsi, Zawadzki, Matan, Arfsten; Rossi, Hernandez, Ramirez

Villa had a really good 2023-24 Premier League campaign that ultimately saw them finish fourth to qualify for next season's Champions League group stage. Emery's men are expected to cement last season's top four performance, and they got off to solid form in pre-season with 3-0 wins over Walsall and Spartak Trnava. Their final two friendlies on their tour of the United States are against RB Leipzig and Club America, before Villa return to England for games with Athletic Bilbao and Borussia Dortmund. The team will get their Premier League campaign underway with a game against West Ham United on 17 August, before playing against Arsenal in the following match. This summer, Villa has been busy in the transfer market. Specifically, they signed Amadou Onana from Everton and sold Moussa Diaby and Douglas Luiz for huge sums.

Gauci; Cash, Carlos, Torres, Moreno; McGinn, Rogers, Onana; Bailey, Archer, Philogene

Saturday promises to be an extremely competitive match at hand. This would go in tandem with the goals that Emery has set out for Aston Villa as part of their pre-season training. Of course, it may end in a draw, but still, Villa is packed with talent to keep the streak of consecutive friendly match wins this summer.