Aston Villa were handed a brilliant Champions League league phase draw with a mixture of clashes against European giants and winnable games to come over the next few months.
Unai Emery’s side are to host Bayern Munich, Juventus, Celtic and Bologna and will travel to RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Young Boys and AS Monaco. A repeat of the 1982 European Cup final against German giants Bayern stands out among the eight fixtures, as do two other mouthwatering ties against Juventus and Celtic at Villa Park.
Douglas Luiz will make a return to Villa Park when The Old Lady come to town, while the Battle of Britain match with Celtic falls in late January for the final league phase fixture. Away from home, Villa were handed one of the easier pot one opponents in RB Leipzig, while they avoided a trip to the likes of Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, AC Milan, Benfica and Europa League champions Atalanta in pot two by being drawn against Club Brugge.
In fact, Opta Analyst claim that Villa have the fifth ‘easiest’ draw of all 36 competing clubs in this season’s competition. Opta used their Power Rankings calculations – which ranks every team in world football on the same scale – to give an objective average rating to each team’s set of eight Champions League group stage fixtures.
Of course, Emery won’t be taking any opponent for granted – after all, this is the Champions League, the pinnacle of European football. Villa also only won one of their six away games in the Europa Conference League last season, which came against AZ Alkmaar. They drew to Zrinjski Mostar and Ajax, but lost to Legia Warsaw, Lille and Olympiacos on the continent.
Villa will play their first game away at Young Boys just three days after returning to action after the September international break against Everton. Then, after their game in Bern on Tuesday, September 17, Villa will host Wolves at Villa Park on the Saturday afterwards.
Villa will play seven games in all competitions in three weeks before the October break, including their first home Champions League game against Bayern Munich, which comes between an away game to Ipswich on the Sunday and a home match with Manchester United on the Saturday after.
If Villa beat Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup, they’ll once again play seven matches after the October break and before the November break. Either side of facing Bologna at home for the third Champions League fixture, Villa play away to Fulham and then at home to Bournemouth.
A trip to Club Brugge on Wednesday, November 6 comes after facing Tottenham away and before facing Liverpool at Anfield and the November international break. Villa also face a tricky trip to Stamford Bridge after hosting Juventus in their fifth Champions League game on Wednesday, November 27.
Villa’s final two Champions League away games against RB Leipzig and AS Monaco come back-to-back before their final fixture with Celtic. It’ll be interesting to see if Villa have already booked themselves into the play-off qualifiers or if they’ll require a result against the Scottish champions.
Here’s the lowdown on Villa’s eight opponents…
Managed by Patrick Rahmen, Young Boys qualified for the Champions League league phase by overcoming Galatasaray across two legs. The Swiss side won 3-2 at their home ground, the Wankdorf Stadium – which has artificial turf – before scoring a late goal in Istanbul to win the tie 4-2 on aggregate.
Young Boys lost their first three league games of the season and come into their clash with Villa without a league victory this term, drawing to Lausanne in their previous Super League game. In fact, despite winning the league last season, Young Boys are currently placed bottom of their division.
Bayern Munich
The German powerhouses will be Villa’s first home tie of the Champions League league phase. It would be a monumental night if Emery’s men were to claim a victory on the night considering the pedigree Bayern have in this competition. Villa Park will be bouncing.
Now coached by Vincent Kompany after Thomas Tuchel’s departure at the end of last season, Bayern have made a strong start to their Bundesliga campaign. They were Champions League semi-finalists last season, but dramatically lost to Real Madrid. Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimich and, of course, Harry Kane are household names, while Bayern have also added Michael Olise and Joao Palhinha to their squad over the summer.
Bologna
Villa will be targeting a victory against Bologna at Villa Park after the Serie A side lost their manager Thiago Motta and key men Joshua Zirkzee and Riccardo Calafiori over the summer. Motta is now manager of Villa’s fifth league phase opponents Juventus, while Zirkzee recorded 19 goal contributions in all competitions last term.
Villa loaned Samuel Iling-Junior to Bologna this summer and he will be eligible to play against his parent club unless there is a clause which both teams agreed on beforehand which would prevent it as there are no UEFA restrictions on loan players.
Club Brugge
The Belgian Pro League champions gained automatic access to the Champions League league phase by winning their division last season. Managed by Nicky Hayen, Club Brugge were knocked out of the Europa Conference League at the semi-final stage like Villa, as they lost to Fiorentina, who were coached by Vincenzo Italiano, the manager who took over at Bologna from Motta.
Brugge lost two important players over the summer, striker Igor Thiago to Brentford and Antonio Nusa to RB Leipzig. In 2022-23, Brugge made it to the Champions League round of 16, where they were beaten 7-1 on aggregate by Benfica after finishing second in their group ahead of Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid.
Juventus
Villa’s penultimate home game in the league phase will be against two-time champions Juventus, who finished third in the Serie A last season. Juve sacked Massimiliano Allegri two days after he led the side to the Italian Cup in May and swiftly replaced him for Motta.
Including Luiz, the Italian giants have conducted some interesting business this summer having also signed Teun Koopmeiners, Nico Gonzalez and Khéphren Thuram while letting go of Federico Chiesa on the cheap. Juventus qualified for the Europa Conference League in 2023, but did not play in Europe last season as they were banned from European competition for a year due to violating UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
RB Leipzig
Villa lost to Leipzig in pre-season, but that game will have no bearing on this Champions League tie in December. The German side sold Dani Olmo to Barcelona and replaced Mohamed Simakan – who headed for Saudi Arabia – with Villa target Lutsharel Geertruida.
Leipzig were knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16 in the last two years after facing Man City and Real Madrid.
AS Monaco
Adi Hutter took over as Monaco manager in the summer of 2023 and guided them to a second-placed finish in 2023-24. Their stadium, the Stade Louis II, only holds around 18,000 fans, but Villa will be hoping to mark their final away trip of the league phase with a positive result to aid their challenge to finish a play-off place.
Celtic
Scottish champions Celtic were given a generous league phase draw, with a trip to Villa being one of their toughest fixtures. Manager Brendan Rogers has a terrible record in the Champions League and after managing his 20th such game last season, he was statistically the worst manager to have taken charge of that amount of matches in the competition having won twice, drawn five and lost 13 across three seasons with Celtic and one with Liverpool.
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