Gabby Agbonlahor was one of the fortunate Aston Villa fans present at Villa Park to witness history as Unai Emery’s side beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in the Champions League.
The journey Aston Villa have been at a club since Unai Emery took over as manager in late 2022 is really quite incredible.
Emery has taken Villa from a club in danger of relegation to the Champions League in less than two years and they have now shown they are right where they belong after the 1-0 win over German giants Bayern Munich.
Harry Kane, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Michael Olise and Kinglsey Coman were all unable to break the Villa resistance before Jhon Duran secured cult legend status with a winner off the bench in the 79th-minute.
The 1-0 win was the same result against the same side from when Villa triumphed in the 1982 European Cup final and given the passing of Villa legend and 1982 finalist Gary Shaw last month it felt like a really special night.
Gabby Agbonlahor in awe of Aston Villa fans’ Gary Shaw tribute
Gabby Agbonlahor is Villa’s record Premier League goalscorer but he never experienced anything like Wednesday night in his career.
Villa Park was rocking from well before kick-off to well after the full-time whistle as the Villa faithful gave their side a real helping hand.
Villa classily included Shaw’s name in the Villa squad in the matchday programme and the legendary striker was the first thought on every fans’ mind as their club secured another famous European win.
Agbonlahor spoke about this to Alan Brazil on TalkSPORT on Thursday morning, where he explained: “The atmosphere… probably one of the best nights I’ve had as an Aston Villa fan I would say.
“The fans were loud and you know what was amazing, Al, at the end of the game the way they were belting out Gary Shaw’s name, the whole stadium. Unbelievable.”
Aston Villa current players earning place in history
After Peter Withe’s goal handed Villa the 1982 European Cup, the club would only play one more year in Europe’s elite club competition before the 41 year absence ended this season.
This just shows the remarkable job that Emery has done in taking a club who were not long out of the Championship to the Champions League.
The Spanish manager is in no mood to stop there and has started the competition with two wins from two to put Villa sixth out of 36 in the initial league phase.
Duran’s strike will be remembered for many years to come, but all of Villa’s current squad are cementing their place win the folklore of the club.
