Aston Villa received a favorable draw in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, avoiding Europe’s heavyweights and landing a winnable tie. With their impressive form under Unai Emery, the Villans have a strong chance of progressing further in the competition.
The draw offers them a realistic path to the quarter-finals, boosting their hopes of an extended European run.
The draw offers them a realistic path to the quarter-finals, boosting their hopes of an extended European run.
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00:00So, Charlie, Aston Villa's Champions League campaign, now we've mentioned it a few times
00:06how they have slowly gone about their business in there. They obviously started fantastically
00:10well with a few fantastic results, you know, the likes of the buy-in win at home as well
00:15was a crazy night at Villa Park. And then, you know, playing the likes of Juventus, etc.
00:21It's sort of new ground that they've tapped into for the first time in a very, very long
00:25time, of course, since they won the competition all those years ago. In terms of their
00:30last 16 opponents, what do you sort of make of the draw? What can you tell us? How will Villa
00:34fans be feeling? And then if they are to progress, you know, obviously two legs to go into,
00:39if they are to progress, then what's the next challenge after that for Aston Villa?
00:45Yeah, it's an incredibly exciting time to be an Aston Villa fan, not one myself, but to see as a
00:50journalist the way that they've progressed under Unai Emery to get to the Conference League last
00:54season, Champions League for this, and to get to the latter stages of the competition as well.
00:58So, so exciting. And they've probably had the most favourable draw out of anybody left in the
01:03competition, I'd probably argue. Club Bruges, they did play them and they lost in the league phase,
01:09but that defeat was such an unusual night. You might remember the Tyrone Mings picking up the
01:13ball and giving away a penalty. But it was such a strange moment that Arsenal did a few years ago,
01:19I think against Bayern Munich potentially, and they got away with it. Villa didn't. Club Bruges
01:23won that game. Villa probably deserved to win it and didn't. So I think they'll take confidence,
01:28even though they didn't win in Bruges, that they can go and do so the second time around. Unai
01:33Emery is so good as well at picking up lessons from taking on teams and those experiences and
01:38looking back on what they can do better. I think they'll do a better job this time around. Though,
01:43that said, Bruges, they did beat Atalanta to reach this stage. Atalanta, of course,
01:48being the Europa League champions of last year, they look so, so strong in this year's competition.
01:53They were defeated. But it was to be mentioned in that second leg in particular
01:58that was against Atalanta. Atalanta had about 30 shots in that game and Bruges had seven.
02:04Bruges winning five to an aggregate in the end, but so clinical. Surely they can't keep up that
02:09kind of level of goal scoring from such few shots. And Villa as well, especially with
02:14Emi Martinez between the sticks, you'd expect that they'd be able to keep out the goals in that respect.
02:18Yeah, and then if they are to win, what does it look like in terms of their next opponent
02:22for the quarterfinal, which is quite crazy to say.
02:26Yeah, if it was on the other side of the draw, they would have played Dortmund in this game and
02:29then Barcelona or Benfica. But the way it is, it will be either Paris Saint-Germain or Liverpool
02:35if Villa progress to the quarterfinals. Fans will like that too much, having to play Liverpool yet
02:40again. Obviously, they did draw against them at Villa Park recently, a very impressive performance
02:44in that one, but such a tough draw either way. PSG would be the more exciting one, a trip to
02:49Parc de France and playing against the likes of some of the best players in the world there. I
02:55think that'll be the more exciting route, but Liverpool the more likely opponents in that
02:58quarterfinal.