Unai Emery has called upon his Aston Villa side to win their first top flight European tie since 1983 in honour of Gary Shaw, who won the cup with the Midlands outfit.
Shaw, who was a key part of the victorious 1982 European Cup team, died on Monday at the age of 63.
Aston Villa are tonight playing Young Boys in their first top flight continental tie since 1983.
“We have a memory always, in our training ground a picture of 1982 and the European Cup, he was a protagonist of that,” Emery said.“Yes, I think it’s sad and we can use it as motivation.”
Villa reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Conference League last season and finished in the Premier League top four to earn a spot in the Champions League this year.
The format of the Champions League, which begins tonight, has been changed by organisers with participants – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa representing England – playing some teams home and others away across eight matchdays.
“We are going to adapt. We changed a little bit our usual way for playing in Europe,” Emery added when asked about Young Boys’s plastic pitch.
“Normally we have a training session in Birmingham and travel. But we decided to come to train here to know and to adapt to the synthetic pitch.
“We’re ready and we won’t use it as an excuse. I think we can play with the same personality like we do at home.”
The Champions League rolls around as research from TNT Sports suggests British pubs will sell 200m pints during this European football season thanks to the increased number of matchdays.
Boozers could see a sales kick of £10m during the competitions.