Unai Emery masterminds ‘statement’ Champions League win for Aston Villa

LONDON – Bayern Munich had not lost a Champions League group game since 2017 until a 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa on Oct 2 that hinted at a new era of European glory for the English side.

Villa relived the club’s greatest night, when they beat Bayern to lift the European Cup in 1982, in their first home match at the continent’s elite level for 41 years.

The Birmingham team’s fortunes have been transformed in less than two years since Unai Emery took charge, catapulting Villa from battling relegation at the bottom of the Premier League to finishing in the top four in the 2023-24 season.

Now two games into their first experience since the European Cup was rebranded to the Champions League, they are one of just seven sides with maximum points.

Prince William was among the over 40,000 Villa fans who inspired Emery’s men to shrug off the vast gulf in Champions League pedigree between the sides.

Britain’s future King was among those to congratulate the Villa manager in a meeting after the match.

“I told him the best moment we can pass is days like today,” said Emery.

“I don’t know where (Villa can go) but we are going to try to enjoy the way. Today we (will) remember how we played, who we played and the Champions League final from 42 years ago. It was a special day.”

Bayern’s previous group-stage defeat, 41 games ago, also came at the hands of Emery when he was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain.

The Spaniard’s time in France and as Arsene Wenger’s successor at Arsenal did not end well. However, he has a track record of lifting European football’s middleweights to trade blows with the continent’s giants.

Emery won three consecutive Europa League titles at Sevilla and lifted the competition for a fourth time with Villarreal in 2021 to deliver the club’s first major trophy.

In the 2021-22 season, Villarreal reached the Champions League semi-finals, knocking out Juventus and Bayern along the way.

Villa are now reaping the rewards of Emery’s shrewd tactical mind and ability to polish rough diamonds.

Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur were among the sides with bigger budgets, but all three finished below Villa in last season’s Premier League as the Midlands side clinched fourth spot.

In the process, Emery’s men beat eventual champions Manchester City and runners-up Arsenal by identical 1-0 scores at Villa Park in December.

They repeated that trick against a Bayern team that arrived in England in free-scoring form.

The German side were stifled by Villa’s organisation and hit with the sucker punch by substitute Jhon Duran.

The Colombian lobbed goalkeeper Manuel Neuer 11 minutes from time to score his sixth goal this season after coming off the bench.

Emiliano Martinez was then needed to make two huge saves in the dying moments as a Bayern side who had averaged over four goals a game since Vincent Kompany took charge were shut out.

“It’s a statement but there are still a lot of games to play,” said Argentina’s World Cup winner Martinez, who joined Villa in 2020.

“We want to qualify in the top eight.

“This is the loudest Villa Park that I’ve heard since I joined the club, that’s for sure. It’s a club that is moving forward. I love playing here, I love the fans. This is a win for them.”

Forward Morgan Rogers, who was playing for second-tier side Middlesbrough earlier in 2024, has gone from the Championship to the Champions League in seven months, thanks to Emery.

“It’s a pinch-me moment,” the 22-year-old said of his meteoric rise. “We’re not here to just compete, we’re here to try and win games.”

In 1982, Bayern legends Paul Breitner and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were among those stunned by Villa’s upstarts in Rotterdam.

Over four decades on, the German giants were left to lick their wounds again on a night that will be long remembered in the Midlands. AFP, REUTERS