Mapping Aston Villa’s Road to Champions League Glory: Projected Pots and Potential Fixtures Unveiled

Aston Villa is close to securing a spot in the Champions League for the first time ever, but the tournament is undergoing some changes.

Aston Villa is expected to be placed in pot four for the Champions League draw next season if they secure a top-four spot in the Premier League in the final weeks of the season. The possibility of Champions League football at Villa Park looms, especially if Tottenham loses to Burnley on Saturday or if Villa defeats Liverpool on Monday.

This achievement would mark a remarkable first full season for Unai Emery at Villa, despite their recent loss to Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semi-finals. Villa is on track to achieve their highest league finish since the early years of the Premier League.

Assuming confirmation, Villa will join Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool in Europe’s top competition next season, unless Spurs stage an extraordinary comeback and Villa falters in their final matches. Hosting Europe’s elite teams represents a significant step up from their opponents in the Conference League this season.

As per Football Rankings (@FootRankings on X), Aston Villa is slated to enter pot four for the Champions League draw. Two clubs, Girona from Spain and Stuttgart from Germany, have already secured their spots. Meanwhile, top-tier clubs like Manchester City, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and PSG are in pot one.

In pot two, you’ll find clubs like Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, and Juventus. Pot three is expected to include clubs such as Celtic, recent Conference League opponents Lille, Dutch duo Feyenoord and PSV, and Sporting Lisbon.

Traditionally, teams finishing third and fourth in the Premier League would have to qualify for the group stages, but more recently, they progressed straight to the group stage.

However, next year’s Champions League will adopt a different format, marking the end of the group stage phase. Teams will now play eight matches in the new league phase. This change allows the number of participating teams to increase from 32 to 36, with all clubs placed in a single table. The eight matches will be determined by seeding via the rankings in the pots, with clubs facing two sides from each pot, one home and one away.