Aston Villa qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history thanks to Tottenham’s defeat by Manchester City.
Last Monday, Villa drew 3-3 with Liverpool, leaving Tottenham with a tentative hope of breaking into the top 4 of the Premier League.
However, a day later, Tottenham turned out to be powerless to stop City (0:2), having lost the last chance to get ahead of Villa.
Thus, next season Villa will play in the Champions League for the first time, where they have never played before since the rebranding of the elite European competition.
The last time Villa played in the European Champions Cup was in 1982/83, and in the previous season they even won this tournament.
In the 1992/93 and 1995/96 seasons, Villa managed to finish in the Premier League in second and fourth places, respectively, but then it was possible to get into the Champions League only from the first line.
The main creator of this achievement is Villa coach Unai Emery, who in October 2022 took over the Birmingham team in 14th place in the Premier League, three points above the relegation zone. Since then, only Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have scored more points in the English championship than the wards of the Spanish specialist.
Let’s add that Villa will be the sixth club with which Emery will play in the Champions League. Unai has done this before with Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, PSG and Villarreal.