It’s not Liverpool or Rome. It’s where the Villa are playing next.
Playing in the Europa League means that big European nights and memorable aways are a lot less likely. At best we’l be playing the sort of club who do well in some second-rate domestic league and have had the occasional bit of success in Europe. That’s the sort of match we’ve got coming up, when we’re playing in an industrial city against a club who’ve won their league a good number of times, won some European trophies and have over the years had a decent number of star players even though they haven’t got that many now.
So far, so average but there’s one thing that sets this one out and meant much begging for time off and Googling flights prices within seconds of the draw being announced. Feyenoord. In Rotterdam. At Der Kuip. The second-holiest place in football, the scene of the greatest match in history. Three-line whips don’t come any whippier.
Of course, the situation will be a bit different now. The ground’s totally different, there won’t be as many of us inside and the most iconic goalpost in the world probably ended up in landfill forty years ago, but none of that matters. We’re back.
Ron Vlaar used to play for them. Remember him? So did Johann Cruyff at the end of his career. They’ve had some world-class former players as manager, as well as Jaap Stam. Their current squad are an anonymous bunch although they’ve got a few Japanese and South Korean players. This is because they’re decent footballers and not an attempt to get Far Eastern supporters, definitely not.
We might have another player or two back from injury, but probably not. Unai will put out a team of some sorts but no point trying to guess who’ll be in it, because his mind works on a different plane to lesser mortals.
Feyenoord are top of the league and unbeaten. We’re Aston Villa, which more than makes up for it. Another win at De Kuip.
