Exclusive: Aston Villa’s Champions League Hopes Depend on Fortress Villa Park, Says Ex-Forward

Former Aston Villa forward Garry Thompson believes Unai Emery’s side have to make the most of their home tie if they are to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The Villains travel to Club Brugge, where they lost 1-0 in the group stage, on Tuesday before hosting them for the return leg on Wednesday 12 March. 

It presents Emery with the chance to secure the club a quarter-final spot in Europe’s elite competition for the first time since way back in 1983 — a year after their famous European Cup triumph. 

Villa have been gone unbeaten on home turf during their exciting European campaign with a hat-trick of wins against Bayern Munich, Bologna and Celtic as well as a goalless draw with Italian giants Juventus 

“The way we’ve gone in the Champions League you’ve got to fancy yourselves, especially at Villa Park,” Thompson told SportsBoom.com. 

“We give most people a game. We beat Bayern Munich. You fancy anyone. The nights at Villa Park are incredible.”

“If you look at the Celtic game, the atmosphere was amazing. If we can get an atmosphere like that then we’ve always got half a chance.”

“When we knew we were in the Champions League this year you were thinking if you can get into the knockout stages then we’ve had a great season.”

“We knew it was going to be difficult with the Premier League to play that and the Champions League.”

“To get to the proper stages with the big boys involved is brilliant. It saved us two games in February as well by missing the play-offs which helped the squad as well.”

VILLA SUFFERING WITH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FATIGUE

As well as Villa have done in Europe, they have been disappointing in the Premier League especially on weekends after Champions League games.

It is a problem which seemingly always hits clubs who are playing in the competition after an extended absence. 

Newcastle’s domestic form notably suffered last season as they finished seventh after being knocked out at the group stage.

Emery’s charges are stuck in mid-table struggling to put a run together in the league, but the nature of the season means they are still within touching distance of third.

Jhon Durán was a big loss last month, but the club added good depth during the winter transfer window with the arrivals of Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio, Axel Disasi, Donyell Malen and Andrés García. 

“At the start of the season I thought the squad was good enough to compete [on both fronts],” admitted Thompson. 

“But the longer we got into the competition, it has become a thing. We have been very, very average at the weekends after the Champions League games.”

“That culminated with the Wolves game, we weren’t ourselves at all. We didn’t look right, we were very flat and we’ve had a few games like that.”

“People are saying that Newcastle did the same when they were there and we do look a little bit off the pace in those games after the Champions League.” 

“We brought in five new players in January so I’d like to think the squad’s a bit deeper to compete a bit better.”