Aston Villa beat Bologna 2-0 at Villa Park on Tuesday night
Aston Villa beat Bologna 2-0 at Villa Park on Tuesday night
Aston Villa made the perfect return to the top table of European football by winning each of their first three Champions League games, but dropped out of the top eight of the league phase table after taking one point from games against Club Brugge and Juventus.
Following victories over BSC Young Boys and Bayern Munich, Unai Emery's side went top of the table after defeating Bologna 2-0 at Villa Park before second batch of matchweek three fixtures. They will be looking to earn a positive result against RB Leipzig on Tuesday evening after the Bundesliga side have lost all five of their matches in the competition so far.
The spoils for the success include more than just the three points in the new 36-team league format. Each win has bagged Villa €2.1m (£1.8m), while the draw against Juventus added €700k (£600k), so they have already banked €7m (£6m) ahead of their final three games.
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The new format makes its debut in the Champions League this season, and for Villa, a club that has had to be cute with its player trading this summer in order to ensure they were able to improve the squad as well as remaining compliant with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) following heavy losses, a Champions League journey could be a panacea for some of their financial headaches.
There is more money on offer than ever before for those competing in this year’s revamped Champions League, with two additional games meaning more walk-up gate money, almost certainly sell-outs, and more chances to take a slice of the massive €3.317bn (£2.85bn) prize pot that is on offer.
Villa still have games to look forward to against RB Leipzig on Tuesday night, AS Monaco on January 21, before the final match against Celtic a week later on January 29.
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