Aston Villa’s nightmare and dream Champions League paths ahead of draw

Aston Villa have enjoyed an impressive debut Champions League campaign and their route forward in the tournament will soon become a lot clearer with some paths easier than others.
Aston Villa can give themselves a pat on the back having made the Champions League knockouts.

Unai Emery’s side are embarking on their first European adventure since they ruled the continent back in the 1980s and have already claimed some high-profile scalps. Finishing in the top eight meant they could sit back and watch some of Europe’s major outfits battle it out to join them over the past week.
Manchester City have been dumped out with Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool the remaining Premier League hopes. Villa won five of their eight games in the league phase, beating the likes of Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig, losing just once, and will hope for a favourable draw from here on in.
Emery knows that his side will face either Club Brugge or Borussia Dortmund in the last 16. The Belgian side did beat Villa earlier in the competition, but only just qualified, before seeing off Italian side Atalanta. Despite that scalp Club Brugge will certainly be seen as a more beatable opponent that the Germans, but the pathways after that are very different.

However taking on Dortmund, and potentially beating them would present them with a chance to face Benfica. That would require the Portuguese side to see off either Liverpool or Barcelona which is unlikely, but not impossible. Benfica did push Barcelona close earlier in the tournament.
After that Emery may hope that the Champions League has seen some major upsets which results in a semi-final against Feyenoord. For that to happen the Dutch side would need to beat two of Inter Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen.

Conversely, Villa could see themselves going out in the last eight, which wouldn’t be a poor return given this is their Champions League debut.

Whilst Club Brugge are very beatable, after that the English side could find things very tricky. They would have to face one of PSG, Liverpool or Barcelona in the last eight.

Should they pull off a shock then they would have to take on defending champions Real Madrid, who made a statement when they saw off City on Wednesday night.