Prince William cheered in jubilation as his beloved Aston Villa made a winning return to European football’s elite in their first home game in 41 years.
Villa’s emotional 1-0 Champions League win over heavyweights Bayern Munich on Thursday (AEST) was the Birmingham club’s first home game in Europe’s top flight since losing to Juventus in the 1983 quarter-finals when they were defending champion.
The Prince of Wales and future King of England is a lifelong fan of the Premier League team.
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William met members of Villa’s 1982 European Cup winning team and posed for pictures before the much anticipated match at Villa Park.
William sat in an executive box and was up and cheering with the rest of the home crowd when Pau Torres appeared to have fired Villa into a 23rd minute lead only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.
“We want VAR, then we have to abide by these decisions,” Mark Pougatch said on Stan Sport.
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“A real shame that, obviously, from Villa’s point of view.”
A 0-0 stalemate appeared likely until Villa super-sub Jhon Duran beat star goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with a stunning 79th minute goal to get William and a packed crowd off their feet again.
“With all due deference, there’s only one King at Villa Park at the moment,” commentator Dan Mann said on Stan Sport.
“A great club and one of their greatest days.”
Bayern was a fitting opponent for their first home game back in the competition.
Villa caused a major upset by beating the German champions 1-0 in the 1982 European final to win the trophy for the first time in history.
“To be honest, it was all Bayern early, they were pinning Villa back,” Pougatch said.
“Villa looked a little bit nervous, maybe showing Bayern a bit too much respect. Harry Kane’s header almost opened the scoring (for Bayern), although in the end he was just offside. But then Villa started to get into it.”
Villa won their opening Champions League game 3-0 against Young Boys in Bern last month.