Aston Villa 2-0 Bologna: Champions League dreamland

Image source, Reuters

Image caption, Aston Villa are the only side to have won all three of their Champions League games this season. Brest, Benfica, Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool could join them on Wednesday
  • Author, Neil Johnston
  • Role, 大象传媒 Sport journalist

Aston Villa are in Champions League dreamland.

With three of their eight games in the league phase ticked off, Unai Emery's side have a maximum nine points after following up wins over Young Boys and Bayern Munich with another impressive win over Bologna.

On a night to remember at Villa Park, the home side swept to the top of the 36-team league phase with matches against Club Brugge (away), Juventus (home), RB Leipzig (away), Monaco (away) and Celtic (home) still to come.

How many points do they require to automatically qualify for the last-16 stage?

Well, according to 15 in the magic number.

That puts Villa in a really strong position.

This was Unai Emery's 25th win in the Champions League, becoming the fifth Spanish manager to achieve as many wins in the competition after Pep Guardiola, Rafael Benitez, Vicente del Bosque and Luis Enrique.

The question is: how far can he take Villa in this season's Champions League?