Unai Emery’s side went into the match 3-1 down from the first leg, but had hopes of reaching the last-four of the competition with the backing of their home fans after being second best in Paris.
The atmosphere was strong before kick-off, with a sold out crowd proving to be vocal ahead of a fast start in Birmingham. But it wasn’t a fast start in terms of those in control of the PA system.
After the teams made their ways out to the pitch, they lined up in front of the main stand to prepare for the Champions League anthem to be played. Only, it didn’t.
Instead, the Europa League anthem played – a competition that Villa haven’t participated in for nearly 15 years, last featuring in the 2010-11 season.
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AS Monaco are in something of a crisis heading into Tuesday night’s Champions League clash against Aston Villa. Despite being in the respectable position of fourth in Ligue 1, Adi Hutter’s side have only won one of their last eight matches in all competitions and that victory came against lower league side Union Saint-Jean in the French Cup. Excluding that routine 4-1 win, Monaco have only claimed victory in one of their last 10. Powered by Their young side hasn’t fully recovered from their last defeat to Benfica at home matchweek five of the Champions League league phase. They were winning 2-1 until goals from Arthur Cabral and then Zeki Amdouni turned the game around in the final stages. READ | Why Ollie Watkins ‘got a bit frustrated’ as striker closes in on Aston Villa history READ | Aston Villa’s dream transfer window as five sign and seven leave in January Then, following a defeat at Marseille and a win over Toulouse in the league, Monaco lost 3-0 at Arsenal in matchweek six. It leaves them 16th in the league phase table, but only three points behind Villa in fifth place. After that loss at the Emirates Stadium, Monaco played out a 0-0 draw with Reims before they suffered defeats to Paris Saint-Germain in the league and cup either side of beating Union Saint-Jean. Failure to beat Nantes and then being knocked out of the French Cup via penalties against Reims meant Monaco’s trip to Montpellier was a ‘must win’ to get them back on track. “I think this is the right match to motivate the whole team just before the Champions League,” Mohamed Salisu said before the game. “It is a very important match to get an energy boost and regain confidence in order to best prepare for the match against Aston Villa. We believe in ourselves and we want to take the three points. “We have no doubts, football is about ups and downs depending on the period. We are currently in a bad moment and we have to fight to get back to the top. The season had started very well and we were in good form, we just need to believe in what we are doing on the pitch and listen to the coach’s tactical advice to get back to our level.” But Monaco fell to a shock 2-1 defeat against Jean-Louis Gasset’s Montepellier and Hutter claimed the important match with Villa wasn’t in the minds of his players. Powered by “Today, it’s more than a big disappointment, it’s a real gut punch for us and everyone at the club,” Hutter said after full-time. “At the start of the season, the wins were stacking up, everyone was happy. I have been in professional football for 35 years as a player before and as a coach now. It is not the first time this has happened to me and the main thing I have learned is to stay positive, work on the details and help the team.” Asked if he thought that the Champions League match against Villa could have affected the team’s mentality, Hutter responded: “I don’t think so, I have the feeling that the team was completely focused on this match. You could see that in the first half, we wanted to make the difference quickly but we missed too many chances. In the second half, we wanted to score the second goal but we made an individual error. We then had no right to concede another goal. “We tried to come back after with several chances in the last minutes but it was too little. I have a lot of respect for Montpellier but we needed to impose ourselves to regain confidence. Tuesday will be a completely different match, it’s the Champions League at home, but I don’t think the team already had Aston Villa in mind.” What is your Monaco vs Villa score prediction? Tell us here READ NEXT: Louie Barry makes transfer decision as Aston Villa told he’s ‘ready’ to accept deal Aston Villa transfer news with latest on Garcia and Bade as trio could leave I visited huge new Midland charity shop and wished the previous store never shut down Marks & Spencer has £29.50 ‘best alternative’ to Levi’s that’s £80 cheaper Aston Villa favourite could join Premier League rivals Man City ‘on loan’ Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
January 20, 2025
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Both sides stood awkwardly as the wrong competition’s music played, while the likes of Vitinha appeared to share a joke with his team-mates and the likes of Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa struggling to hold in their laughter before the handshakes began without the anthem making an appearance.
The stage is set… but the anthem is wrong 
#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/G2ESu9KE4m
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 15, 2025
Someone has miscued the Champions League anthem,’ Amazon Prime commentator Jon Champion said as the music play
He later added: ‘Better late than never’ after the right anthem did eventually play.
Fans, meanwhile, weren’t afraid to make their displeasure known as they booed the second-tier European competition.
Villa fans had a large tifo on show before the game, which read: ‘This is Villa Park,’ accompanied by two lions.
Emery’s men were one of just two English sides left in the competition, essentially hoping to meet Arsenal in the semi-finals after the Gunners beat Real Madrid 3-0 in their first leg last week.
But Villa got off to the worst start when Achraf Hakimi made it 4-1 on aggregate early on following an error from Emiliano Martinez.
Prince William watched on, having impressed last week when speaking to TNT Sports to give some analysis pre-game. He cut a disappointed figure in the crowd as the tie ran out of reach early on.
Nuno Mendes soon seemingly put the tie to bed, scoring his second goal of the tie to make it 5-1 and threaten a brutal night for the club, but Tielemans did net before the break.
Villa were given brief hope when club captain John McGinn made it 2-2 on the night just after half-time, and Ezri Konsa soon cut the deficit to one.
