"Pau Torres gathers possession in front of the Holte End, where in 2016 a banner was unfurled reading: No fight, no pride, no effort, no hope. He threads the ball over the halfway line, where Tony Xia once stood as the new Aston Villa chairman and promised to build a theme park. In the dugout Unai Emery leans forward expectantly, just a few yards from where six years ago to the day a disgruntled fan threw a cabbage at Steve Bruce."
"So perhaps it was only natural that Villa Park's first taste of the Champions League would be freighted by a certain sense of history. And not just the obvious parallels with 1982, but the more recent past, the long and often ignominious journey Aston Villa have taken to get here. Relegations and promotions, five managers in 20 months, getting turned down by Rickie Lambert. A night to feel a little dazed and concussed at the sheer pace of progress."
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