Aston Villa embraces long-awaited Champions League home game when Bayern Munich pays a visit

It’s been 41 years since Aston Villa last hosted European club soccer’s elite competition.

On Wednesday, that wait ends when it faces Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

“I didn’t think I’d see it again. It’s fantastic,” Villa fan Stephen Morley, 63, told The Associated Press.

The last time Villa played a home match in the European Cup — as it was then known — was as the defending champion in 1983. In recent years Villa’s place in the top flight of English soccer — let alone the Champions League — has been far from guaranteed.

As recently as 2019 the seven-time English champion was playing in the second division as part of a three-year stint out of the Premier League. And in 2022, it looked in danger of being relegated again until the hiring of Unai Emery transformed the club’s fortunes and got fans believing anything is possible again.

“It’s been a long time since Champions League nights at Villa Park — everyone is excited and looking forward to it,” striker Ollie Watkins said Tuesday. “Playing Champions League football for Villa is the best it can get really.”

These are heady times for a club that last challenged for the domestic title in the 92-93 campaign and was last champion in 1981, which provided its route into the European Cup.

Back then the competition was a straight knockout format between the champions of each country and the reigning European Cup holders.

Against the odds Villa, which had seen its title-winning manager Ron Saunders leave the club part-way through the campaign, beat the then-three-time winner Bayern 1-0 in the final in Rotterdam.

Lifelong fan Morley was 21 at the time and among around 13,000 Villa supporters to make the journey from England to the Netherlands. He traveled by bus and ferry, remembers Rotterdam in May feeling “like a sauna” and the unbridled celebrations that greeted Peter Withe’s winning goal.

“It was just crazy. We couldn’t believe it because you’re playing against a team of that caliber,” he said. “When you’re 21 you don’t realize what an achievement it was and I don’t think I really took in the achievement of the fact that we won the European Cup. It probably took a while for it to sink in.”

The journey home was via Germany before returning to Birmingham where the streets around the city were lined with fans waiting for the victorious team’s homecoming.

“I remember sitting in a little cafe at six in the morning, drinking,” said Morley. “The next day I went to Birmingham when they brought the cup back into the city center. It was a proper celebration.

“There’s six of us that went and there’s only three of us alive (now).”

Villa’s last home game in the European Cup was against Juventus in 1983 — a 2-1 first-leg loss on its way to being knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Morley is still a season ticket-holder and will be at Villa Park again on Wednesday for the first game against Bayern since the final.

He credits Emery with club’s spectacular turnaround.

“He’s without doubt the best coach we’ve ever had at Villa,” he said. “He’s just a tactical genius. He gets every answer.”

Villa was three points above the relegation zone when Emery was hired in October 2022. He guided the team to seventh that year and in his first full season led Villa to fourth, securing Champions League qualification.

To put that into context, Villa had finished 14th, 11th and 17th in the previous three years since being promoted back to the Premier League.

The momentum under Emery is continuing this season and only a 2-2 draw with Ipswich on Sunday stopped fifth-place Villa from moving up to second in the league.

“We’ve got a manager that we trust — he’s been there and experienced it all. He always has us focused on the next game and the task at hand,” Watkins said.

Emery previously coached Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Paris St-Germain and Villarreal in the Champions League.

His reputation in Europe, however, has been built on his performances in the second-tier Europa League, which he has won on four occasions: three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. He was also a beaten finalist in the competition with Arsenal.

He got Villa’s Champions League campaign off to a winning start by beating Swiss club Young Boys 3-0 in its opening game earlier this month and wants to keep his team among Europe’s elite.

“Hopefully we can play more times in the Champions League, but it’s the first match after a long time,” he said. “We’re motivated and excited to play tomorrow with our supporters in Villa Park in this scenario, this match, remembering the final of the European Cup played against them 42 years ago.

“I want to play matches like this and I want to play consistently matches like this.”

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer