Aston Villa's 2024-25 reviewed: Beating Bayern, the Wembley fail and a half-time spat that backfired

New York Times

2 days ago

Another season of Unai Emery at Aston Villa and another year of securing European football.
Villa have completed the set. Conference League in the first season, Champions League in the second — maybe ahead of schedule — and Europa League in the third.
This final one may bring slightly less pleasure, given it does not align with Emery's desire for incremental progress, and it came from missing out on the Champions League due to goal difference and a controversial refereeing decision.
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But football is rarely straightforward and, regardless, Villa are consistently qualifying for Europe.
Here The Athletic dissects an unforgettable 2024-25 season, when Villa trod new ground but suffered familiar disappointments…
The Champions League nights. The Tifos. The lights. The fireworks. The sheer noise. The Holte End. All of it majestic. Villa's return to Europe's premier competition delivered some of the most prestigious and ear-splitting matches in recent club history, creating memories for supporters, family members and friends, just as Villa's past European campaigns had.
Right, don't head straight for the comments because I know what you'll say: 'No, the Bayern Munich game.' And you would be well within your rights to say that. But patience, please.
The game of the season was the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park. Villa were 5-2 down on aggregate at half-time and so very nearly came back to produce one of the most utterly thrilling back-from-the-brink wins in Champions League history. Emery's very own La Remontada.
John McGinn lit the fuse and was a man possessed: head down, scurrying and smashing anything and anyone in sight. Marcus Rashford blew in like a hurricane for a quarter of an hour and PSG, the wonderful, mercurial team, were battered.
A Youri Tielemans header, an Ezri Konsa flick or a Marco Asensio one-on-one could have been the difference. Alas, PSG clung on, helped by the referee limiting stoppage time to three minutes. That night was the most remarkable collective effort from Emery's side and maybe the best isolated half in a generation.
Remember early season Jhon Duran? Yeah, we'll never forget him, even if Villa's goal-of-the-season shortlist does not include any of his efforts.
His 'oh well, I'm just gonna smash this' thunderbolt to complete a comeback against Everton was quintessential Duran.
BREAKING: Jhon Duran's incredible strike against Everton is the Guinness Goal of the Month for September 🚀 pic.twitter.com/qXcL3dnV5U
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 11, 2024
The win against Bayern wrote a new chapter in Villa's history. The whole evening was fitting.
Villa's first home Champions League tie and a 1-0 win, the same score as the 1982 European Cup final.
Duran's dink — a goal endlessly replayed and with the Titanic soundtrack over the top — imprinted into minds.
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And Villa Park has rarely experience the level of noise that greeted the full-time whistle.
Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final. How utterly passive and dismal Villa were in letting a monumental opportunity to win silverware slip away.
'VAR is not a tool to protect or to be under any ego, any system or any individual,' Unai Emery wrote in his programme notes following Duran's unfortunate Boxing Day sending-off against Newcastle United. 'VAR cannot be overused to break the spirit of the game.'
Hear, hear.
I've done some shape-shifting here. This could easily fall under the 'Did that really happen?' category. But for crowbarring purposes, it has to be Tyrone Mings deciding to pick up the ball inside his box at Club Brugge.
Mings' handball turned out to be decisive in a 1-0 defeat and Emery, speaking in a hurried post-match press conference, partially blamed his team's loss on the incident. 'It's completely strange,' he said. 'It is the biggest mistake we've made in my career as a coach.'
Club Brugge are awarded a penalty after Tyrone Mings picks the ball up inside his own area 😳
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/wpAqjMW8pn
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 6, 2024
Everyone in a wifi-less press box and with no replays available had little idea what had just happened, with the dismay continuing for the rest of the game. The whole episode was frankly bizarre.
Palace are turning into Villa's bogey-team and have left haunting, if somewhat funny, memories. Away at Selhurst Park, halfway through a dire display that would result in a 4-1 defeat, deputy goalkeeper Robin Olsen was told to warm up.
So Olsen started catching crosses from the wings. Unbeknownst to him, however, there was a problem. He was in the way of Palace's half-time entertainment, comprising a group of young children shooting into the goal. The stadium presenter asked the 'keeper to step to one side, but the Sweden international declined.
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'We shall not be moved,' sang the away end. Home supporters retaliated with boos. Less than an hour later, that same sound followed Olsen as he trudged down the tunnel, having shipped three goals. The whole thing was so odd, exacerbated by the silliness of Villa on the night, that it seems quite funny in hindsight.
PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the first leg in Paris and Palace's Adam Wharton at Wembley. Both dominant.
Emery has overseen some cautiously bodged performances this season — Club Brugge, Monaco, Ipswich Town (twice) and Crystal Palace (four times) — while, mirroring the team, producing some masterminded victories.
It was always going to be difficult to qualify for the Champions League again, but he has largely handled the increased expectations well and navigated tricky spells. Villa's end-of-season form was exceptional but ultimately they were left with too much to do after six wins in 21 league matches between September and February. Still, a third straight season in Europe is some going.
A sub-par first half of the league campaign will be forgotten about in years to come, with the nights against Bayern Munich and PSG the overriding recollections. So for that reason, he gets an eight out of 10.
Who goes and who stays. Lots of business and invariably underpinned by Villa being mindful of PSR.
'Do you remember when former president of business operations Chris Heck charged £92 for a ticket against Brighton & Hove Albion?'