Aston Villa have not scored a league goal all season, and tonight the Champions League starts
The Europa League holders begin their league phase in Bruges at 22:15 IST, sitting 17th in England with one point and an empty goals column.
Sep 8, 2026
Aston Villa open their Champions League at the Jan Breydel in Bruges at 22:15 IST on Tuesday, and they arrive without a Premier League goal to their name. Three matches, none scored, five conceded, one point, 17th in the table. This is the team that won a European trophy in May.
Three games, nothing scored
The season opened at Brighton on 23 August and was over before half-time. Victor Lindelof turned the ball into his own net on eight minutes, Maxim De Cuyper made it two on 18, and Jack Hinshelwood scored on 30 and again on 31. On 40 minutes Joao Gomes was sent off on his league debut, after a VAR check, for kicking out at Georginio Rutter. Four down and ten men, with the second half still to play.
Arsenal came to Villa Park on 31 August and won 1-0 through a Bukayo Saka finish just before the hour. Villa did not manage a shot on target. Then a goalless afternoon at Hull City on 5 September, which at least stopped the bleeding.
The squad is not the squad that won it
Unai Emery is still the manager. Almost everything else has moved. Morgan Rogers, who scored the 58th-minute goal in the Europa League final, went to Chelsea for 117 million pounds, a British record. Lucas Digne, who started that final, went to Paris Saint-Germain after 182 appearances for the club.
The money came back in. Johan Manzambi arrived from Freiburg for a club-record 59.5 million pounds, which has a neat symmetry to it: Freiburg were the team Villa beat in Istanbul, and Manzambi was named the Europa League’s young player of the season for the run that took them there. Joao Gomes came from Wolves, and has one red card from one league start. Alejandro Garnacho is on loan from Chelsea.
Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul on 20 May, their first Europa League and their first European title in 44 years. That result put them in this competition and in the Super Cup, where Paris Saint-Germain beat them 2-1 in Salzburg on 12 August. Both of those things are recent. So is the goalless start. Working out which one describes this team is the whole question of Villa’s autumn.
Club Brugge are not a soft opening
Brugge are Belgian champions, a 20th title, and they have started this season the way champions are supposed to. Five league games, four wins, 12 points, third on goal difference behind Gent and Union SG. Nine scored, two conceded.
Ivan Leko has been in charge since December 2025, his second spell at the club, and he won the league in the half-season he inherited. Simon Mignolet retired in the summer after seven years and more than 300 games in goal. Yann Sommer, who is 37 and left Inter on a free, has taken over from him. The Jan Breydel holds a shade over 29,000 and will be full.
Eight games, one table
The league phase gives all 36 clubs eight matches, finishing on 27 January. The top eight go straight into the round of 16. Ninth to 24th drop into a knockout play-off. Below that, the season ends there.
Villa’s eight: Club Brugge away, then Fenerbahce and Viking at home, Barcelona and Galatasaray away, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at home, Slavia Praha away. There is a top-eight route in that draw. It starts with taking something from a night like this one.
The rest of the opening night: Real Madrid host Inter and Porto host Manchester City, both at 00:30 IST, with Borussia Dortmund v Villarreal and Lille v Real Betis at the same time. AEK Athens play LASK alongside the Villa game.