Page 69 - Soccer360 Issue 107

RETURN OF THE VILLA
Dan Roberts looks at how Aston Villa might fare back in the Champions League for the first time in over 40 years.
It was March 1983 when Aston Villa last
played in Europe’s elite club competition.
Defeat to Juventus, after victories over
very first
Besiktas and Dinamo BCuhcamhpaiornesst, meant
League Cup
that the West Midlands cluinb19’s55dream
of back-to-back European Cup titles was over, having become champions
so famously against Bayern Munich
the previous year. There would be participation in lesser competitions sporadically over the years but loyal fans have been waiting patiently for another experience at the top table of European football. Now, 41 years later, that day is finally about to arrive.
After steady progression and a standout season last year under the stewardship of Unai Emery, Villa will enter the Champions League in the league phase, as the competition showcases its new format for the very first time. Emery’s side will face eight opponents in an attempt to qualify for the knockout rounds and possibly towards even greater success.
It is difficult to overestimate just how much of Villa’s recent success has been down to the Spanish head coach. Joining the club in October 2022 with Villa near the bottom of the table, Emery oversaw a vast improvement that ended with a place in the Europa Conference League
- where they reached the final four - and a fourth-place finish in last season’s Premier League that earned the club a return to the Champions League.
Now Villa are about to rub shoulders with the likes of Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain and really test the club’s resources. Some impressive additions
to the squad have already been made though and it looks like Emery has his sights on further glory. It has been a long wait for the Villa fans but with ambitious owners and a squad that continues to get stronger, it could be that the club might now become a regular name in the most prestigious club competition of them all.
UEFA has
come a long
way since
Real Madrid won the
2024/25
KEY
DATES
LEAGUE PHASE
Draw Date
August 29
Matchday 1
September 17-19
Matchday 2
October 1-2
Matchday 3
October 22-23
Matchday 4
November 5-6
Matchday 5
November 26-27
Matchday 6
December 10-11
Matchday 7
January 21-22
Matchday 8
January 29
Play offs Draw January 31
Play offs
February 11-12 & February 18-19
Draw Date for Remaining Rounds February 21
Round of 16
March 4-5 & March 11-12
Quarter Finals
April 8-9 & April 15-16
Semi-Finals
April 29-30 & May 6-7
Final
KNOCKOUT
ROUNDS
May 31, 2025
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
By the end of the 2024-25 season, we may well be greeted with the very familiar sight of one of the European elites, such as Real Madrid or Manchester City, lifting the most prestigious trophy in club football in front of their delirious fans in the Allianz Arena in Munich. But the way we arrive at that point will be markedly different from before, with a new extended league phase for fans to get their heads around. There have been similar alterations to the Europa League and Conference League competitions, for what promises to be another exhilarating campaign.
In the biggest shake-up in European football of the last 30 years, the top club competitions will have a very different look this season. Gone are the now traditional groups of four in the opening round and in comes a league phase. In the Champions League and Europa League that means a 36-team division, in which each club plays
eight games - four home and four away. There has been a similar change in the Conference League where the clubs will play six games, drawn at random, in one big league. Accusations of over-favourable draws for the wealthier teams are surely only a few short months away.
The fans will also have to wait until the New Year for the knockout rounds to be decided. We have become used to knowing which teams will be involved before the Christmas decorations come down each year but this season’s play-off rounds will still be going on in February, meaning it will be March before the round of 16 - usually referred to by some media pundits as the “real tournament” - begins. Can we expect to see the same old faces come through at the end though?
Unsurprisingly, it is Manchester City
and Real Madrid who are most people’s favourites to win the Champions League this season. With Mbappe in the Los
DID YOU KNOW?
Manchester City won its first Champions League title in 2022–23, and it won its fourth consecutive Premier League championship in 2023–24, the first time a club had done so.
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