Aston Villa broke one club’s record in the Champions League despite the goalless draw against Juventus on Wednesday night.
It’s now seven games without a win for Unai Emery’s men in all competition, although the Spaniard will take courage from Aston Villa’s performance.
The Villans came up against a watertight Juventus defence, who rarely left any gaps for the hosts to exploit and this made it extremely difficult to break through.
That said, Villa did score a perfectly fine winning goal, as Morgan Rogers slammed the ball home in the final minute of stoppage time.
But, VAR intervened for a foul by Diego Carlos on the goalkeeper, with replays showing there was minimal contact.
Emery dubbed the decision to disallow the goal as ‘soft’ after the game while thousands of Aston Villa fans felt it was the worst refereeing call they’d seen.
Disappointment was the general feeling post-match but the Villans still broke one Champions League record that has stood for over two decades.
A general view of Villa Park, home of Aston Villa, during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD5 match between Aston Villa FC and Juven...
Photo by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images
Aston Villa equal Chelsea’s 25-year Champions League record
One criticism of Villa this term has been their leaky defence, conceding a whopping 19 goals in the Premier League.
MORE VILLA STORIES
It’s a complete contrast to how they’ve performed in Europe’s elite competition, with Emi Martinez now keeping four clean sheets in his first five games.
The only goal they’ve conceded so far was a penalty against Club Brugge on matchday four as a result of Tyrone Mings’s bizarre handball.
More impressively, after shutting out Juventus on Wednesday night, the Villans became the first team to keep three clean sheets in their first three Champions League home matches since Chelsea in 1999.
Emery’s men have so far recorded clean sheets against Bayern Munich, Bologna and Juventus at home, with Celtic their final home clash in January.
Unai Emery denied Champions League history vs Juventus
The above record Villa have broken is remarkable but the Spanish boss was denied a piece of history himself against the Italian giants.
Heading into the game, Emery could have made Champions League history by beating Juventus, becoming the first manager to secure three wins over the Old Lady in Europe’s elite competition.
In doing so, he would have beaten some of the greatest managers of all time to the accolade, most notably Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti.
Emery will have to wait to break this record however, there is no doubt he’ll get another chance to create further history down the line.
Related Posts