The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League draw has been eagerly anticipated by Aston Villa fans since the end of last season. Villa finished fourth in the Premier League meaning they qualified for this season's elite European competition and they have now discovered who they will face. The stand-out ties will see Villa host Bayern Munich and Douglas Luiz's Juventus at Villa Park. Read below to see who Villa will play, a reminder of how the new Champions League format will work and when the fixture details will be released.
Aston Villa's Champions League fixtures
Here are Aston Villa's 2024/25 UEFA Champions League fixtures and the venue for those fixtures:
1. Aston Villa v Bayern Munich - Villa Park
2. RB Leipzig v Aston Villa - Red Bull Arena
3. Club Brugge v Aston Villa - Jan Breydel Stadium
4. Aston Villa v Juventus - Villa Park
5. Young Boys v Aston Villa - Wankdorf stadium
6. Aston Villa v Celtic - Villa Park
7. Aston Villa v Bologna - Villa Park
8. Monaco v Aston Villa - Stade Louis II
How will the format work?
For those who may have missed this evening's draw or not seen how the new format will work here is all you need to know. In years gone by, the competition consisted of 32 teams with each of those teams being manually drawn out of a hat to be part of a four-team group with each team in the group playing each other home and away. This meant each team would play six matches and the top two teams would qualify for the knockout phase.
The new format will consist of 36 teams split across four different pots. Each team will play an initial eight league phase matches (two from each pot) with four of those being at home and four of those being away.
Once the initial league phase has reached its conclusion, which will be towards the end of January, the knockout phase will begin. In the 36-team league phase, the top eight will automatically qualify for the next stage and teams that finish 9th-24th will be drawn against each other in a two-legged play-off round to qualify for the next round. Teams that are ranked 25-36 are eliminated from all European competition. No longer will teams drop to the Europa League like previous years.
ℹ️ New format. New draw.#UCLdraw | #UELdraw | #UECLdraw pic.twitter.com/QKTwVPMhQU
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 20, 2024
When will the dates and details be announced?
The fixture list with match dates and kick-off times will be announced on Saturday 31st August.
In terms of TV coverage. TNT Sports has retained the bulk of Champions League live rights with Amazon Prime showing the first pick Tuesday night game from each round of fixtures. BBC will for the first time be showing a Wednesday night highlights programme.
Aston Villa look to repeat European Cup triumph
Since the competition was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992 Aston Villa have not competed in the competition. However, Aston Villa were part of the competition back in the early 1980's when it was named the European Cup.
On 26th May 1982, Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam thanks to a goal from Villa legend Peter Withe to famously win the European Cup. That magnificent night was the best in Villa's long history and now 42 years on Unai Emery and his team will be aiming to make history once more.
""My objective at the beginning is to play more than eight matches. We will enjoy the Champions League by being competitive and successful. I got to the semi finals with Villarreal three years ago and now I want to do the same here.""Unai Emery
Who will Villa's fellow Premier League teams face?
For those that are interested here is who Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool have been drawn against:
Manchester City: Inter (H), PSG (A), Club Brugge (H), Juventus (A), Feyenoord (H), Sporting CP (A), Sparta Praha (H), S Bratislava (A)
Arsenal: PSG (H), Inter (A), Shakhtar (H), Atalanta (A), GNK Dinamo (H), Sporting CP (A), Monaco (H), Girona (A)
Liverpool: Real Madrid (H), Leipzig (A), Bayer Leverkusen (H), AC Milan (A), Lille (H), PSV (A), Bologna (H), Girona (A)
UTV