Last Wednesday night at the Reebok Stadium had every Wanderers supporter from Bolton to Beijing dreaming of securing a place in the final and although the signs are good you can be sure that Villa will do their upmost to try and pull themselves back into the tie.
Bolton will have to do without their captain and Man of the Match from the first leg, Jay-Jay Okocha. The Nigerian misses the game because he is on international duty in the African Cup of Nations whilst another key figure from last week's win Kevin Nolan, is suspended having picked up his fifth booking of the season in the recent win over local rivals Blackburn Rovers. Defensive duo Ricardo Gardner and Florent Laville are still some way off full fitness so they will miss the trip to Villa Park but it is expected that Per Frandsen will return to the starting line up after being suspended for the first leg to fill one of the vacant midfield berths. Ibrahim Ba, Javi Moreno and Henrik Pedersen are all expected to be in contention whilst the experienced defender Simon Charlton may return to the starting line up, possibly at the expense of either Anthony Barness or Emerson Thome.
Villa have a massive doubt over their top goalscorer Juan Pablo Angel who is said to have a leg injury so Swedish international Marcus Allback could be in line to replace him. However David O'Leary is able to play Olaf Mellberg following a head injury which he picked up in the first leg at the Reebok Stadium. Young striker Stefan Moore is once again ruled out due to an ankle injury picked up two weeks ago.
PLAYED FOR BOTH
FRANZ CARR
NEIL COX
SASA CURCIC
GARETH FARRELLY
STUART GRAY
JOHN GREGORY
KEVIN POOLE
BRYAN SMALL
ALAN THOMPSON
OTHER CONNECTIONS
BRUCE RIOCH
BOLTON SQUAD: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Anthony Barness, Bruno N'Gotty, Emerson Thome, Simon Charlton, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Ivan Campo, Ibrahim Ba, Youri Djorkaeff, Kevin Davies, Javi Moreno, Henrik Pedersen, Kevin Poole, Delroy Facey, Danny Livesey
VILLA SQUAD: Thomas Sorensen, Mark Delaney, Olaf Mellberg, Ronny Johnsen, J-Lloyd Samuel, Lee Hendrie, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Peter Whittingham, Gareth Barry, Markus Allback, Juan-Pablo Angel, Gavin McCann, Darius Vassell, Stefan Postma, Ulises De la Cruz, Liam Ridgewell, Peter Crouch