Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. FC Bayern München – Wed, Oct 2nd 2024, 20:00
UEFA Champions League football graces Villa Park for the first time on Wednesday night when Bayern Munich come to town for a historic clash.
Aston Villa beat the German giants 1-0 to win the 1982 European Cup in the only previous meeting between the two clubs.
The current team put in a strong performance to beat BSC Young Boys 3-0 on the club’s Champions League debut on matchday one.
Bayern were also comfortable winners in their opening game of this season’s competition, demolishing Dinamo Zagreb 9-2.
England captain Harry Kane scored four times in that rout and has bagged ten goals in seven games this term.
Vincent Kompany was installed as manager in the summer and has overseen a strong start to the campaign, winning six of his first seven games in charge.
Stats
Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane has been directly involved in seven goals in six career appearances against Aston Villa at Villa Park (five goals, two assists). He’s scored the game-winning goal at Villa Park on two previous occasions, netting a 90th-minute winner in November 2014 (2-1) and both goals in a 2-0 victory there in March 2016 – both as a Tottenham Hotspur player.
Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers created four chances from open play on his UEFA Champions League debut last time out (v Young Boys on MD1); the most by an English player on their debut in the competition since an 18-year-old Danny Welbeck in November 2009 (5 for Manchester United v Besiktas).
Jamal Musiala created more chances than any other player on MD1 of this season’s UEFA Champions League for Bayern Munich (7), with all seven in open play. He is the youngest player (21 years, 204 days) to create seven chances in open play in a Champions League match Opta has on record since 2003-04.
Bayern Munich registered 19 shots on target in their MD1 victory over Dinamo Zagreb; the most by a team in a single UEFA Champions League match on record (since 2003-04). Their xG tally of 6.25 was more than six teams managed in the 2023-24 campaign in total.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has only lost three of his previous 20 non-knockout stage games in the UEFA Champions League (W13 D4), although one of those defeats did come against Bayern Munich in December 2017 (1-3 while in charge of Paris SG).
Bayern Munich won 9-2 versus Dinamo Zagreb in their opening game of the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League, but are winless in their last three away matches in the competition (D1 L2). They last had a longer winless run on the road between February and September 2016 (D2 L2), spanning the spells of Pep Guardiola (3) and Carlo Ancelotti (1).
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has already beaten Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League on two previous occasions, winning 3-0 in September 2017 in charge of Paris SG and 1-0 in April 2022 with Villarreal. The only manager to beat Bayern Munich in the competition with as many as three different teams is José Mourinho (Chelsea, Internazionale and Real Madrid).
Aston Villa won their first UEFA Champions League game on MD1 (3-0 v Young Boys), while the only other English side to win their first two matches in the competition (since 1992-93) is Leicester City – 3-0 v Club Brugge and 1-0 v FC Porto in 2016-17.
Bayern Munich have only lost one of their last 10 UEFA Champions League meetings with English sides (W7 D2), a 0-3 defeat to Manchester City in the 2022-23 quarter-final first leg.
The Last Meeting
The most famous night in Villa’s 150-year history came against Bayern Munich in May 1982.
A star-studded Bayern team couldn’t break down an organised and motivated Villa, who were forced to bring substitute goalkeeper Nigel Spink on for Jimmy Rimmer just nine minutes in.
Spink’s saves and some brilliant defending paved the way for Peter Withe to score the winner after 67 minutes.
Team News
Captain John McGinn has been ruled out of the game with the injury he picked up against Wolves.
Matty Cash will also be absent, while Boubacar Kamara and Tyrone Mings are nearing returns.
After limping off on the weekend, Harry Kane will be a last-minute decision for Kompany on whether to start him, with Thomas Muller and Mathys Tel the likely replacements.
Daniel Peretz, Josip Stanišić, Sacha Boey and Hiroki Ito all remain sidelined.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“I want to play matches like this and I want to play consistently matches like this. In the Premier League we are facing teams like them, favourites – Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal – that can win this competition this year. They are favourites with other teams like Bayern Munich. Playing in Europe, we are very, very happy to face Bayern at home and hopefully we can enjoy tomorrow. Hopefully we can compete and show our best against them.” – Unai Emery
“You all know that it is over 40 years since their last Champions League home match. Last year was extraordinary for Aston Villa. They deserve to be here. They are well organised and at home they have fantastic support. But Bayern Munich is used to these nights. We want to have fun as well. I think everything that Aston Villa does is very clear. They are well organised, you can see that easily. You can see what they want to achieve in every stage of the game. They are very compact.” – Vincent Kompany
