Aston Villa’s win over Man City helps another team qualify for the Champions League
Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on the last day of the Premier League season has helped another team secure automatic Champions League qualification.
Unai Emery’s team came into the match after their big 3-0 win in the Europa League final against Freiburg. The players looked a bit tired during their trophy parade on Friday, and Emery even joked that he would ‘try’ to put out a strong team at the Etihad Stadium.
Since Villa had already qualified for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, there wasn’t much pressure in their final game. This meant Emery could make several changes to the lineup, including goalkeeper Marco Bizot, defender Tyrone Mings, and midfielders Ross Barkley and Douglas Luiz.
Ollie Watkins, who was just named in England’s World Cup squad, scored two goals to help Villa win against Manchester City in Pep Guardiola’s last game as their manager. Antoine Semenyo scored the first goal in the first half, followed by Watkins’ two goals in the second half, bringing his total for the season to 21.
This win kept Villa in fourth place, ahead of Liverpool. Because of this, they’ve accepted the Champions League spot based on their league position rather than as Europa League winners. This means their Europa League titleholder spot goes to the highest-ranked team in UEFA’s club ranking who hasn’t qualified yet. That team is Sporting Lisbon from Portugal. They won their league but were at risk of having to go through qualifying rounds. According to Foot Rankings, Sporting Lisbon will be in pot two for the 2026/27 Champions League draw, along with Villa.
Villa’s win also affected Bournemouth’s chances. If Villa had finished fifth, Bournemouth would have qualified for the Champions League. But since Liverpool finished fifth without qualifying through other ways, they took the European Performance spot instead. Bournemouth, who finished sixth, will play in the Europa League next season under new manager Marco Rose after Andoni Iraola left.