No one would have got Aston Villa to overcome Liverpool and Manchester City in the champions League this season.
However, here they are in the quarterfinals, preparing to face Paris Saint-Germain, the former Manager Uni Emery club and the current employers of the Villa's winner, Marco Asensio.
Asensio has won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid and, under the UEFA rules, is eligible to face its parent club in the last eight. The last time Villa played a Belgian club in Villa Park in this competition, they beat Anderlecht 1-0 in the semifinals on the way to lift the trophy in 1982.
Villa will be helpless against the PSG, so impressive to beat Liverpool on two legs, but with omens like these, their supporters will dream of a second title. What work has done here since he took charge in the fall of 2022, when the club feared they were dragged to the descent fight. The head of the PSG, Luis Enrique, is a former winner of this competition, but will not taste Emery about two legs.
A double of the second half of the Asensio substitute, which now has seven goals since he joined the winter window, on both sides of the strike by Ian Maatsen sent witches despite the fact that the turning point arrived much earlier, when Kyriani Sabbe was sent for transporting Marcus Rashford in the 17th minute.
If Emery can find your way beyond PSG, it will be very significant. He was in charge of the French giants in 2017, when a 4-0 advantage over Barcelona was erased by a surprising 6-1 defeat in the second leg of his last tie.
Emery has admitted that it was the worst moment of his career as a coach. The victory over his former club next month would surely be the best, despite the four titles of the Europa League he has won.
Leading 3-1 from the first leg, Villa had all the reasons for confidence and certainly gave him the great accumulation.
There were fireworks prior to the party, a great banner in the Holte End paying tribute to the rich history of the club, and the prince of Wales was in the stands.
However, instead of intimidating witches, the atmosphere seemed to inspire them initially. The Belgians hit the ball with great ease in the openness and villa exchanges seemed nervous. Matty Cash hit a square pass directly to Sabbe 20 yards and felt relieved to see that the ball disappears in the Holte.
Not long after, Hans Vanaken made a late race to the box, headed in front of Tyrone Mings and at least he should have tried Emi MartÃnez when he met Ardon Jashari's cross near the penalty point.
When Ezri Konsa hit a aimless ball to Ollie Watkins that was engulfed, the local crowd showed her first sign of nerves, which settled seconds later.
Rashford accelerated from the flank and his career was seen by MartÃnez, who chose it wonderfully. It was now a race between Rashford and Sabbe and Manchester United's man in Bella was too fast and strong for his opponent, who knocked him down. Straight red card.
The visitors did not let that setback affect them and not the traveler followers, who made fun of Villa with a few classics of the terrace of the eighties and ninety years, sung, of course, in English. Emery was taking the matter much more seriously and hit her head on the band. Keep calm, everyone.
In the middle of half, Bruges had enjoyed 70 percent possession, but only created a real opportunity when Villa tried to squeeze the life of the draw. Watkins collected a blow challenging Brandon Mechele E, ignoring the instructions of the officials to leave the field, stayed in the penalty area. That meant that the party could not restart and the impulse was lost.
Rashford should have put the draw without a doubt in the detention time of the first half just to shoot the mings cross to the lateral network from eight yards.
Watkins left for part time, although Asensio was a rather decent replacement, while Leon Bailey came to Boubacar Kamara.
Having defended brightly in witches, Mings was almost decisive at the other end when he forced a strong stop by Simon Mignolet.
Less than five minutes after arriving, Asensio effectively sent Villa through when he floated around the back of Mechele and produced an excellent final for the first time of the Bailey pass.
An exhausting side of witches could not understand the movement of Asensio at all. Once again, the Spanish found too much space to collect the pass of Youri Tielemans and with the Holte preparing to celebrate, shot at the interior of the post.
Villa did not have to wait long to double his advantage when Asensio played in Morgan Rogers, whose Cruz was delivered in the close position by Maatsen. Now Villa was carving witches at will and did not spend much time before Rashford broke into the box and square so that Asensio slides in his second.