Aston Villa to host Bayern Munich and Juventus in Champions League

The glamour tie will take place during the new expanded group stage as part of a mouth-watering slate of home fixtures marking Villa’s return to Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in more than four decades.

Unai Emery’s team will also host a further two former European Cup winners in Juventus and Celtic.

Juventus are the last team Villa faced in the European Cup as defending champions in the 1983 quarter-finals, while the match will also be a reunion with former midfielder Douglas Luiz, who moved to the Italian giants this summer in a £42.5m deal.

The clash with Celtic will be the first-ever competitive match between the clubs.

Emery’s men will also host Bologna and travel to RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Young Boys of Bern and Monaco, with the schedule for the group stages due to be confirmed on Saturday.

In a draw which has largely delighted supporters, it is the tie with Bayern which is by far the most eye-catching.

The Bavarian club, who Villa famously beat 1-0 in Rotterdam in 1982, were the first opponents to be confirmed during last night’s draw, which took place in Monaco and was conducted by Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo with the aid of a fixture computer.

Club chairman Nassef Sawiris was in attendance, along with president of football operations Monchi and head of football ops Damian Vidgany.

Speaking after the draw was made, Monchi said Villa would need to take the competition “step-by-step”.

“The first thing is I’m happy to be here because after 41 years Villa can play Champions League,” he said.

“That’s the most important thing in this moment. I’m happy with the draw. It’s a difficult draw because we are playing in the Champions League and it is very difficult in that competition to find an easy team.

“But we need to compete. We need to work. I think that we need to take it step by step, every game and to find the best play possible.”

The first matches in the competition will take place from September 17-19, with Uefa having dedicated that week to the Champions League. It means Villa’s Premier League home match with Wolves on Saturday, September 21 could be moved, should they have a European tie scheduled for the Thursday night.

The new Champions League format sees all 36 teams play eight matches each, with the group stage concluding in January and the competition running through the season, meaning there is no longer a winter break.

The top eight qualify automatically for the last-16, while those placed between ninth and 24th enter the play-off round and the bottom 12 clubs exit the competition.