Pre-season friendly number five takes Aston Villa to Thailand, where Unai Emery’s side face BG Pathum United on Tuesday afternoon.
Villa made a positive start to the Asian leg of their summer preparations on Saturday, beating Indonesia All Stars 3-1 in Jakarta before travelling north to Thailand for the second game of the tour.
Emi Buendía, Ross Barkley and Brian Madjo scored as Emery used 22 players and continued to spread minutes across a squad still being pieced together after a summer of significant change.
It was exactly the sort of exercise Villa needed. The result was useful, but getting Alejandro Garnacho back into a starting XI, giving youngsters further opportunities and beginning to integrate the new-look squad mattered far more.
Emery sounded encouraged afterwards, telling VillaTV that he was “really optimistic” about how the squad was developing. ReadAstonVilla covered Emery’s positive message after the Jakarta victory.
Now comes another different challenge.
BG Pathum United will provide local opposition in conditions that should again test Villa physically, before the difficulty level rises considerably against Bayern Munich in Hong Kong three days later.
Match details
Date: Tuesday, 4 August 2026
Kick-off: 1.30pm BST / 7.30pm local time
Venue: True BG Stadium, Pathum Thani, Thailand
Competition: Pre-season friendly
UK TV: No traditional television broadcast confirmed
Streaming: VillaTV
Forecast: Hot and humid with periods of rain expected, with temperatures around 34°C during the day
Aston Villa’s official Asian tour schedule confirms the fixture and VillaTV coverage, with Emery’s side then travelling to Hong Kong to meet Bayern Munich on Friday.
ReadAstonVilla also broke down Villa’s demanding August schedule, which includes Bayern, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Brighton and Arsenal after the Thailand friendly.
Aston Villa team news
Villa should once again have a large travelling squad available, although another heavily rotated team is likely.
Emery made ten changes at half-time against Indonesia All Stars, with only goalkeeper James Wright completing the full 90 minutes. Garnacho made his Villa debut from the start and played the opening 45 minutes after going three months without starting a competitive or friendly match.
That makes him one of the more interesting selection calls on Tuesday.
Villa will want to carefully rebuild the winger’s fitness rather than immediately overload him, but another 45 minutes would make sense before the stronger Bayern test.
The younger players should also remain heavily involved.
George Hemmings played the second half in Jakarta and described the performance as “something to build on”. ReadAstonVilla highlighted on Sunday how the academy midfielder is pushing for another opportunity against BG Pathum after scoring twice earlier in pre-season.
Brian Madjo also strengthened his case by scoring Villa’s third goal on Saturday.
Then there is Kosta Nedeljkovic.
The Serbian started at right-back against Indonesia and has quietly put together an encouraging summer. ReadAstonVilla analysed on Sunday how Nedeljkovic has given Emery a genuine decision over his first-team future, particularly after Andrés García’s loan departure opened another route behind Matty Cash.
Tuesday should give him another opportunity to make that argument.
Leon Bailey is not part of the travelling group as talks continue over a potential move away from Villa. His absence creates further opportunities in the wide areas.
Several players involved at the World Cup are also being reintegrated gradually, so there is little reason for Emery to suddenly ask his established names to play 90 minutes.
This remains pre-season.
Fitness, tactical understanding and keeping players healthy are the priorities.
Predicted Aston Villa XI
Bizot; Cash, Mings, Torres, Maatsen; Bogarde, João Gomes; Alysson, Hemmings, Garnacho; Madjo.
Emery could effectively reverse the approach used in Jakarta and give several of Saturday’s second-half players the opening 45 minutes.
Marco Bizot should receive another opportunity in goal, while Tyrone Mings, Ian Maatsen and Matty Cash are all realistic candidates to start after being introduced later against Indonesia.
João Gomes should continue building his understanding with his new team-mates.
Further forward, Garnacho could benefit from another start, while Hemmings and Madjo have done enough during pre-season to warrant more meaningful minutes.
The chances of this exact XI completing much more than a half are slim.
Expect changes. Lots of them.
BG Pathum United team news
BG Pathum are considerably more established opposition than an assembled Indonesia All Stars side.
They play their football in Thai League 1 and are based at the 16,000-capacity True BG Stadium, which should produce a much more traditional away-game atmosphere for Villa.
Their squad includes experienced Thai and overseas players such as Gakuto Notsuda, Patrik Gustavsson and Riku Matsuda. Their most recent listed competitive fixture ended in a 1-0 League Cup defeat to Port FC.
There is also a fairly substantial warning from recent history for any Premier League side tempted to treat the fixture as a sightseeing exercise.
BG Pathum famously beat Borussia Dortmund 4-0 at the same stadium during the German club’s Asian tour in 2024. Dortmund fielded several recognised first-team players and were comprehensively beaten in difficult, humid conditions.
It remains only a friendly, of course.
But BG Pathum have already demonstrated that they can make these summer exhibition matches rather uncomfortable for high-profile European visitors.
What should Villa be looking for?
The result is secondary, but there are several individual stories worth following.
Garnacho needs minutes.
Hemmings and Madjo need opportunities to prove their strong summers are more than temporary pre-season form.
Nedeljkovic needs to keep convincing Emery that Villa might not need to find another back-up for Cash.
And the new signings need to continue understanding how Emery wants his team to behave both with and without possession.
The conditions also matter.
George Hemmings admitted the heat and humidity made Saturday’s Jakarta game difficult, and Tuesday is unlikely to provide much relief. Periods of rain are forecast in Pathum Thani alongside temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s.
Managing workloads will therefore be important with Bayern waiting only three days later.
Previously
There is no meaningful recent competitive history between these teams, so Tuesday should feel more like a genuine tour fixture than the familiar pre-season meetings Villa regularly play in Europe.
Villa arrive after beating Indonesia All Stars 3-1, having previously faced Walsall, Porto and Real Sociedad during their preparations.
The next fixture represents a major jump.
Bayern Munich await in Hong Kong on Friday before Villa return to Europe, with PSG then providing the first competitive test of the campaign in the UEFA Super Cup.
BG Pathum therefore represents one of Emery’s final opportunities to experiment freely.
By Friday, the team should begin looking considerably more like the Aston Villa he intends to use when the serious football starts.
Prediction: BG Pathum United 1-3 Aston Villa
