Tribal Football

Aston Villa to face Roma in strange preseason friendly at Walsall's Bescot Stadium

Zack Oaten
Aston Villa to face Roma in strange preseason friendly at Walsall's Bescot Stadium
Aston Villa to face Roma in strange preseason friendly at Walsall's Bescot StadiumAction Plus
Aston Villa have announced a number of preseason fixtures, including one against Serie A side Roma.

Villa will play Frankfurt on Saturday, July 26th, before three fixtures in the United States St. Louis City, Nashville SC and Bundesliga side Frankfurt. Next, manager Unai Emery and his side will test themselves against Roma who will be coming off the back of their games against FC Kaiserslautern and RC Lens. 

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Interestingly, this game will not be played at Villa Park but will instead be played at the Bescot Stadium, home of Midlands rivals Walsall. It will be the second time Villa have faced Italian opposition at Bescot, having played Roma’s city rivals Lazio at the venue two summers ago. 

The Bescot Stadium, where Villa are starting their pre-season, holds just 11,300 fans, which will surely sell out as both sets of fans buy tickets for what is perhaps the biggest game of their preseasons in such a small venue. The reasoning for not using Villa Park is due to the number of concerts being held there, which will require plenty of maintenance to set up and then dismantle.