Aston Villa are gearing up for their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final clash with Lille, but have been dealt a huge blow.
The Villains play the Ligue One outfit at Villa Park on Thursday, April 11 at 8.00 pm. The return leg takes place a week later on Thursday, April 18 at the earlier kick-off time of 5.45 pm at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Villa know that if they progress they will face the winner of Olympiacos v Fenerbahce. Both clubs are big in stature in their countries, but Villa who won the European Cup in 1982, might be considered the favourites for the competition.
If Villa progress to the final they will play one of the teams out of Club Brugge, PAOK, Viktoria Plzen and Fiorentina. The match will take place at the Agia Sophia Stadium in Anthens on Wednesday, May 29 at 8.00 pm UK time.
The bad news that has been delivered to Villa ahead of next month’s final and that is that they will receive a small allocation. The Agia Sophia Stadium hosts 32,500 people, and Villa will only be given 9,000 tickets.
A total of 21,000 tickets out of 27,100 will be available to supporters and the general public. 18,000 of those will be split between the two teams in the final, and then the remaining 3,000 to the public, which can purchased through the UEFA portal.
Tickets have been priced at €25 for fans of the team, and then start from €45 going up to €125. Those who are successful in purchasing through the portal can buy up to four tickets.
As a reference point, for the Champions League final, each team will get 25,000 tickets and will start from £60 up to £610. It is being held at the home of English football, Wembley Stadium on Saturday, June 1. Arsenal and Manchester City are the two remaining English teams in the competition.
The Europa League final which will be held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin has 12,000 tickets each, and they start at €40 all the way up to €150. Liverpool and West Ham United are representing England in the quarter-finals and have ties against Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen this week.
The news comes as a blow for any Villa fans who will want to attend what could be Villa’s first major European final in 41 years. They won the Intertoto Cup in the 2001/02 campaign but that was to qualify for the UEFA Cup, in which they were knocked out in the first round.
Unai Emery’s side topped the group in what was their first European campaign since the 2010/11 and they toppled Dutch giants Ajax in the previous round. Villa are currently fourth in the Premier League and are on course for a Champions League spot but Spurs do possess a game in hand. If Villa were to win the Conference League they would automatically qualify for the Europa League.
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