It’s time to play Bayern Munich.
Aston Villa versus Bayern Munich. Surely the most evocative, emotion-charged phrase in the English language. We can be a cynical bunch at Heroes Towers, but that’s for another day. This one is about glory and showing the world what a wonderful place Villa Park can be when we put our best clothes on. It’s a time to forget the prices (if you can), the growing distance between club and supporters, the ongoing fiasco of getting into the ground this season and remember how far we’ve come.
Playing one of the other super-clubs in the Champions League is what kept us going through the days of Rotherham and Barnsley and Preston. Of having to cheer players who should never have been allowed to be ball boys let alone represent Aston Villa. Of cabbages and ridicule and brushes with administration. We’ve dreamt about nights like this, and here’s the first one.
It’s fair to say that since last we met, Bayern have done a bit better than us. 26 league titles, fourteen German cups and three European Cups better, in fact. Then there’s the assorted European, world, super and intercontinental trophies. This is one seriously successful club, which makes it even stranger that they appointed a manager who’d just got Burnley relegated. Anyway, they’ve never won the Birmingham Senior Cup by a record score so that makes us even.
They’ve got Harry Kane, who’s injured at the moment and certain to be fit at kick-off. They’ve got a load of world-class player throughout the team. They used to have Alan McInally. They haven’t got Unai Emery though, so that makes us even again.
I daresay there’ll be flags and colour and loud bangs and all that sort of nonsense. But there’ll also be the Champions League anthem, and never will it have sounded better. We’re the Villa. We deserve this.
