UNAI EMERY has got Aston Villa fans dreaming of Europe again.
The 51-year-old Spaniard has performed a stunning job since replacing Steven Gerrard in the Villa Park dug-out in October.
Last night’s 1-0 victory over Fulham stretched their unbeaten Premier League run to ten and lifted the Villans above Tottenham into fifth.
Emery is now closing in on bringing European football back to Villa for the first time in 13 years with the manager already looking for reinforcements to bolster his squad.
While an adventure on the continent may be something new for the younger Villa supporters, it was a regular occurrence for those longer in the tooth.
And those in the older generation will still look back fondly on the club’s remarkable 1982 European Cup triumph, which also saw them go on to lift the Uefa Super Cup that summer.
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Peter Withe scored the only goal of the game as they defeated Bayern Munich in Rotterdam under Tony Barton.
They went on to feature six times in European competition during the 1990s, with their best performance coming in the 1997/98 campaign when they reached the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup when they were beaten by Atletico Madrid via penalties.
Two Uefa Cup appearances followed in the 2000s but they went on to suffer play-off disappointment two years on the spin from 2010 in the Europa League as they failed to take the final step into the competition proper.
Their last outing was a 3-2 home loss to Rapid Vienna at Villa Park, which meant they were eliminated in the play-off stage again courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate scoreline.
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The Villa team that night included several big-hitters, with some still playing now and others who have gone on to become managers and pundits after hanging up their boots.
American Brad Guzan, now at Atlanta United in his homeland, was in goal for Kevin MacDonald’s side that night.
Frenchman Habib Frederic Beye, now manager of Championnat National club Red Star in Paris, was right wing-back.
Current Derby County ace Curtis Davies, retired Carlos Cuellar and James Collins, joined him in defence with Ashley Young, now back at Villa after stints at Manchester United and Inter Milan, down the left.
A midfield trio of Nigel Reo-Coker, a pundit for CBS Sports, Stiliyan Petrov, who was playing for a Sunday League team less than 18 months after his retirement due to his acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and Stephen Ireland, without a club since leaving Bolton in 2018, made up the midfield trio.
And former England internationals Gabriel Agbonlahor, who now stars on TalkSport, and Emile Heskey, now head of football development of Leicester City Women, were up front and they both got on the scoresheet.
But late goals from Rapid’s Mario Sonnleitner and Rene Gartler dumped them out and left them heartbroken.
Now it is the likes of Olli Watkins dreaming of banging in the goals for Villa next season in Europe.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
