'Pony' in the Champions League

Rashford (right) and Asensio (centre) - the winter rookies who made Aston Villa stronger

Returning to the continent's number one league after a four-decade absence, Aston Villa showcased an exciting new face.

The logic of coach Emery.

Aston Villa are having a very strange season. In the Premier League, they're in eighth place and they've been playing poorly. Champions LeagueThey made it to the quarter-finals and were full of hope when their next opponent was a PSG that didn't have much money.

With many top-flight teams, the competition in continental arenas sometimes leads to collapse. Last season's Newcastle is an example. In a rare time of entering the Champions League, "chickens" have difficulty organizing the squad, allocating power for races. As a result they are both "crazy", despite playing emotionally during many matches.

In the Champions League, Newcastle played very well but were unlucky to get into the "death" group and just lacked a bit of luck to be able to win the next ticket.

Aston Villa did not have a bigger squad than Newcastle, but they had the "cup king" Unai Emery. The Spanish strategist was unsuccessful in big clubs like PSG or Arsenal, but extremely cool with mid-tier clubs. At Sevilla and Villarreal, he brought them four Europa League trophies.

UEFA's format change this season seems to have helped Emery "like fish meets water". In the eight-match playoff format, each opponent met only once, Aston Villa repeatedly created surprises when they beat both giants from Germany Bayern Munich and Leipzig to enter the top 8 with just one more point than the chasing team.

Reasonableness of the leadership

Aston Villa's leadership also deserves praise for its correct decisions on the transfer market.

After two consecutive summers of heavy investment, Aston Villa began the "capital rotation" from last summer. They pushed out high-value players like Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby to bring in reasonably priced players such as Barkley, Onana, Illing-Junior. .

This winter, Aston Villa returned to action with five quality new signings: Malen, Rashford, Asensio, Disasi and Andres Garcia. The total amount they had to spend was only half the proceeds from the sale of young player Jhon Duran (CLB Al Nassr bought for 77 million euros).

When a mid-level club like Aston Villa ventured into the continent, finances were always an issue for them as they needed to strengthen their squad and increase players' salaries.

But Aston Villa's management had an extremely astute transfer policy, finding ways to sell non-essential players at high prices while skimming the market for quality newcomers on cheap terms.

After the two transfer windows of this season, Aston Villa earned more than 40 million euros - enough money for them to increase salaries, retain pillars that can still add depth to the team.

With this result, it is likely that the Premier League will be allocated one more Champions League ticket next season. Aston Villa only need to finish in fifth place (they have 2 points) to participate in the Champions League again next season.

But who knows, Aston Villa could still be in the Champions League next season as champions.