Bruggevs.Aston Villa

For the first time ever, the West Midlands outfit are bidding to balance their efforts in the Premier League with games at European football's top table.

Up until October 26, Unai Emery's side could claim to be impressing on both stages having collected 17 points from their opening eight matches in England's top flight.

However, accumulating just one point from meetings with Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur has left Villa down in sixth place in the Premier League table, seven points adrift of leaders Liverpool.

Although Villa have now failed to win any of their last three games in all competitions, they make the trip to Belgium looking to achieve something that has never been pulled off in the Champions League.

What record is up for grabs?

Villa have already become just the fourth club in the competition's history to win their first three matches.

During the early years after the creation of the Champions League, AC Milan (1993), Paris Saint-Germain (1994) and Juventus (1995) all posted that many victories in succession.

Nevertheless, neither of the aforementioned teams recorded clean sheets in each of those triumphs, unlike Villa who have shut out Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna.

Therefore, Villa can become the first team to win their opening four Champions League matches, as well as keep a fourth clean sheet in a row in what could be a record that stands the test of time.

Club Brugge record plays into Villa's favour...

In 2022, Club Brugge incredibly recorded three successive wins in the Champions League, beating Bayer Leverkusen, Porto and Atletico Madrid.

Since then, though, they have prevailed in just one of their last eight games, losing each of the three fixtures that have taken place at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

Most notably, the Blue-Black failed to score in each of those matches versus Porto, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund, conceding nine times in the process.

Last time out, Nicky Hayen's side went down by a 3-1 scoreline at AC Milan, not helped by the first-half dismissal of Raphael Onyedika.