We first qualified for European competition almost fifty years ago, by winning the 1974-75 League Cup and we were drawn against Royal Antwerp in the following season’s UEFA Cup. I can remember feeling real excitement about Villa’s first competitive foray into Europe. My disappointment was correspondingly profound when we were thrashed 4-1 in Antwerp then lost the return at Villa Park by 1-0. With due respect to Antwerp, they have never been one of the big names in European football, so it was obvious that we were miles off the pace.

We were back in Europe again after an excellent season in 1976-77 when we finished fourth and won the League Cup again. This time we did a lot better, reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-final where we went out to Barcelona. The result was close though: a 4-3 aggregate loss.

Villa had to wait until 1981-82 season for another crack at Europe, our reward for winning the league. Everyone knows what came next. Our success was quite remarkable because we had had so little experience in Europe, we had lost Ron Saunders, who resigned at the quarter-final stage, and we were rank outsiders. Those two earlier League Cup wins were vital as we would otherwise have had no experience at all in Europe prior to 1981-82.

During the following season we took a measure of delayed revenge against Barcelona by beating them 3-1 on aggregate in January 1983 in the European Super Cup, a match between the European Cup and Cup-Winners Cup holders. We also reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup, but we were eventually well-beaten by a talented and experienced Juventus.
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We were now on a downward trajectory, but we finished 6th in 1982-83 and qualified for the UEFA Cup. We got through against Vitoria Guimaraes but very disappointingly lost the home leg against Spartak Moscow, which narrowly put us out.

That was the end of our European adventures for a while. Doug Ellis appointed Graham Taylor in May 1987 to try to reverse our decline and, by the end of 989-90 season we had finished as runners-up in the first division and qualified for Europe. We only managed to get through two rounds of the 1990-91 UEFA Cup though. After knocking out the Czech club Banik Ostrava, we were drawn against Inter and lost 3-2 on aggregate, which was again a disappointment after winning the home leg 2-0. This time we were only out of Europe for a couple of seasons as the good old League Cup came to our rescue again.

By now, Ron Atkinson was our manager and he engineered a famous Wembley victory over Manchester United in the 1994 League Cup final, which meant we were back in Europe for 1994-95. Yet again we were in the UEFA Cup and yet again we only lasted a couple of rounds. In the first round we gained belated revenge over Inter by knocking them out on penalties. Next up was the Turkish side Trabzonspor and this time we went out with the scores level, as our opponents got that crucial away goal at Villa Park.

In November 1994 Atkinson was replaced by Brian Little who guided us to fourth in the league in 1995-96, while we again won the League Cup, beating Leeds. This meant that, after a one-year gap, we were back in the UEFA Cup for 1996-97. However, this experience proved very shortlived, as we were immediately dumped out of the competition by the little-known Swedish outfit, Helsingborgs, who scored the important away goal in an aggregate draw.

We qualified for the UEFA Cup again the following season by finishing fifth and gaining a UEFA Fair Play ranking. This time, we fared better. First we knocked out Bordeaux, then we beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on aggregate and we followed that up with a narrow victory over Steaua Bucharest. In the quarter finals we drew 2-2 with Atletico Madrid, but they got that vital away goal at Villa Park.

We were able to have another go in 1998-99 though, this time with John Gregory in charge. The previous season we had finished seventh but we were again awarded entry via a UEFA Fair Play ranking. We got through comfortably in the first round against Norwegian outfit Stromgodset, but Spanish side Celta Vigo, proved too strong for us.

That was it for the 20th century, but we were soon back in Europe, in the Intertoto Cup this time, having finished sixth in the Premier League in 1999-2000. We played two rounds, overcoming the Czech side FK Marila Pribram 3-1 on aggregate but then going out to Celta Vigo again. However, we finished eighth in the league and again qualified for the Intertoto Cup. This time we won it, beating Croatian side NK Slaven Belupo, Rennes and Basel. Which enabled us to enter the UEFA Cup. However, we were immediately dumped out by another almost unknown Croatian side, NK Varteks.

But hold on, yes, you guessed, we finished eighth again and were eligible for the Intertoto Cup once more. The matches were played before the start of the season proper and we managed to get past FC Zurich before succumbing to Lille.

That was it for European competition until 2008-09, by which time Martin O’Neill was in the hot seat. The previous season we had finished sixth and once again qualified for the good old Intertoto. We got past Odense BoldKlub of Denmark in the third round, which this time got us into the UEFA Cup 2nd qualifying round. We comfortably beat the Icelandic giants Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjardar before also beating PFC Litex Lovech in the UEFA Cup 1st round proper. That led to UEFA Cup group stage matches, the first being at Villa Park against Ajax, whom we beat 2-1. Next up were Slavia Prague, who we beat 1-0 away before we met Slovakian side MSK Zilina, who won 1-0 at Villa Park. The final group stage match was in Hamburg, where we lost 3-1.

Our performances in the group just took us into the knockout stage, where we met CSKA Moscow who beat us 3-1 on aggregate. However, despite playing all these matches, we again finished sixth in the Premier League and this time we qualified for the Europa League play-off round in the 2009/10 season. We played Rapid Vienna, drew 2-2 on aggregate and went out on away goals. Once again we had finished sixth though, which again qualified us for the Europa League play off round in 2010-11. It was a case of déjà vu though, as we again drew Rapid Vienna and we again lost, this time 4-3 on aggregate. That was it as far as Europe was concerned and we didn’t get back until 2023/24 when we reached the Europa Conference League semi finals under Unai Emery.

Now we have Champions’ League matches to look forward to, starting with a visit to Young Boys at the Wankdorf stadium (yes, really) in Berne. Our first home game is against Bayern Munich, whose record in Europe makes ours look distinctly third rate and emphasizes how many seasons we have wasted since we beat them in Rotterdam over 42 years ago.

Since the billionaires took over football, it has intrigued me how tightly success is tied up with the size of the club’s turnover. The Deloitte Football Money League analysis for 2024 covers the 2022-23 season and shows Villa only just out of the European top 20, at no. 21. Our turnover of €250.5 million is less than a third of that of the league leaders, Real Madrid, on €831.4 million, though. In between them and us are eleven other clubs in the Champions’ League, from Manchester City on €825.9 million to Atletico Madrid on €364.1 million.