Aston Villa book another Villa Park friendly during FA Cup weekend

Aston Villa have booked in another friendly with Steven Gerrard's men set to take on Molde at Villa Park.

The Norwegian side will fly to Birmingham on Friday ahead of Saturday's friendly - kick-off 1pm - with both clubs not in league action once again.

Molde are currently amidst their winter break while, for Villa, they're not in FA Cup action having been knocked out by Manchester United in the third round last month.

The behind-closed-doors fixture will be the second in B6 this week off the back of Villa's win over a weakened Brentford side on Tuesday.

Molde, meanwhile, were formerly managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who, in 2012, came close to replacing axed boss Alex McLeish with Paul Lambert eventually taking over.

Molde manager Erling Moe said: "This is a match that brings us forward in terms of seeing where the squad is in terms of intensity and quality. Gaining this experience is excellent."

The Norwegian club were originally supposed to play a training match against Brattvåg on February 5 prior to flying out to Malaga for some warm weather training, with that fixture now replaced with one against Gerrard's Villa.

As for Villa, head coach Gerrard could welcome back his South American trio of Emi Buendia, Emi Martinez and Philippe Coutinho following their involvement with Argentina and Brazil respectively this week.

Bertrand Traore and Trezeguet will miss the weekend's fixture given their involvement at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Elsewhere, it'll be the same squad that came from behind to beat Brentford on Tuesday with new additions Robin Olsen and Calum Chambers set to be involved once again.