00:00Aston Villa produced some of the most exciting football seen at Villa Park in years.
00:09Big wins against top six sides and a confident run in Europe showed the club's growing stature
00:14and their intents to challenge at the top end of the table.
00:18Key players like Holly Watkins and Uri Tielemans delivered consistently, while Villa's home
00:23form became a fortress.
00:26With their incredible Champions League run, this campaign will go down as one of the
00:30most memorable in the club's recent history.
00:34We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to reflect on Aston Villa's best moments
00:39from a season that reignited belief across the fan base.
00:44Charlie, looking at Aston Villa, and let's start by looking across the season, maybe a
00:50bit of a reflection of a season that promised so much and maybe just fell short at the last
00:55moments, but still some incredible history set with their return to the Champions League
01:00and those incredible nights against Bayern Munich and PSG as well.
01:06Obviously, the season moved so fast and it did end in slight disappointment, but they
01:11will still be competing in Europe next season with high ambitions under Unai Emery, I'm sure.
01:16Let's start with the best moment in terms of Villa season or moments or period because they
01:23had that run where they were sort of unstoppable.
01:25Maybe you can touch on the January window as well.
01:28That was remarkable.
01:29That took a lot of people by surprise with the signings they got in and they were going
01:33big.
01:34So, what sort of stands out as the best moment for Aston Villa fans this season?
01:38I think it's difficult to pick just one, to be honest.
01:42The Champions League run was just incredible.
01:44Qualifying for it in the first place was such an achievement.
01:47I think even if Villa got knocked out in that league phase, they wouldn't have been too
01:50disappointed because at least they would have had the opportunity to play within it.
01:54Playoffs would have been good enough, finishing between ninth and 24th, but finishing the top
01:59eight was just absolutely incredible.
02:01And that win over Bayern Munich at Villa Park towards the start of that run was such an incredible
02:05night to remain unbeaten at Villa Park throughout the entire Champions League campaign.
02:10Incredible.
02:11The same could be said in the Premier League as well.
02:12Apart from the opening, the first home game in the season against Arsenal that they lost,
02:17they were undefeated in every single game at Villa Park.
02:19So, that's a real achievement.
02:21I think that PSG game, the second leg, even though they went out on aggregate, just a fight
02:28to get back into that game after going 1-0 down so early, to win it 3-2.
02:31The atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable.
02:35It's difficult to pick out just one moment, as I say, but the January windows you kind of
02:39touched upon with Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio coming in.
02:42These are transfers that fans just wouldn't have been able to imagine, even a couple of
02:45years ago when United Emory first came in.
02:48So, really on the rise, so much to be positive about, even if they did miss out on the Champions
02:52League qualification at the end.
02:56Yeah, in terms of worst moments or sort of moments to maybe brush past and forget, the FA Cup run was
03:02fantastic and you maybe thought going into that semifinal against Crystal Palace that their
03:07poor form against Palace wouldn't continue, yet it did.
03:11Palace were incredible on the day and Villa sort of went home thinking, you know, we were
03:16possibly dreaming of lifting the Champions League and if not, then maybe the FA Cup in
03:21terms of a trophy this season.
03:22And then it slowly, you know, ever so quickly went out the window for them and Inouye Emory.
03:27And then the attention turns to getting Champions League qualification and they just fall short
03:33on the final day in controversial fashion as well at Old Trafford.
03:36But surely maybe looking at the season and thinking they could have been very much closer
03:42to lifting a bit of silverware.
03:44Yeah, I think there's kind of three periods or moments that stand out.
03:47There was one period where Villa kept two clean sheets in 23 matches.
03:52Emi Martinez was not in form of that period.
03:54The defence not in form at all.
03:55Pau Torres was out for two and a half months with a broken metatarsal.
03:59But then they managed to keep many clean sheets towards the end of the season.
04:02They went on such a great winning streak and they very nearly clinched that Champions League
04:06football at the last moment.
04:07I think if you look at 10 games to go in the season, you wouldn't have expected them to be in
04:12the fight for the top five, but they got into that position.
04:15And if they just managed to get one point against Manny Knights at Old Trafford,
04:19they would have got into it.
04:19And that is kind of the second of the three moments I'm talking about.
04:22Is that game at Old Trafford?
04:24Such a disappointment.
04:25All they needed to do was their own job because the other results elsewhere ended up going their way.
04:30No silverware, no Champions League.
04:32But the fact that they've managed to stay in these races,
04:34they've managed to have decent progression in lots of competitions and been so close.
04:39I think it just shows that Villa are on this trajectory for a long time now and not just briefly.
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