What is value, anyway? A point, a Champions League point is certainly to be treasured. While Unai Emery’s pre-match appraisal of Juventus may have been a hyperbolic, they are a fine side.
And given that this particular point keeps Aston Villa above their opponents in the table – defeat would have seen them leapfrogged - then certainly there is value in that.
But to those stood behind plastic railing, up at the top of the Holte End, where regulars are prescribed pre-season altitude sickness meds and necks remain tilted below 90 degrees even at goal kicks, does £94 per click through the turnstile remain value?
Aston Villa and Juventus simply snookered one another
The answer is short and swift. No. Villa’s ticketing policy for their return to football’s elite competition is a disgrace, an outrageous reward for those who most deserve better. That, though, is another piece for another day.
The crux of it here is the format shift. The “Swiss model” that UEFA introduced this season – and will remain in place for a few years at least – largely to placate those Super League breakaway wannabes. The idea was, presumably, to add value. It does. But only in the form of pounds, Euros and one’s cryptocurrency of choice.
144 matches all to eliminate just 12 teams. Nah, there is no real jeopardy. It makes for plenty a dull spectacle, and a competition where not losing will often be prioritised over winning. Throw caution to the wind? Maybe toss a sprinkling off it into a gentle breeze but don’t expect too much more.
For supporters, those who attend out of an innate desire to be entertained, watching Villa and Juventus nullify each other was akin to chucking on an ill-fitting but sparkly waistcoat, heading up to the Crucible and watching Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry completely ignore the six pockets, instead concentrating efforts solely on snookering each other for 90 minutes.
Perhaps somewhere, in a pub, or the latest superfluous chain coffee bar to open ten yards from another caffeine centre, there will be a group of pals who whack their laptops on the table, open Excel and gush over the numbers. But if you actually like football? Nah. Not the game for you.
"Most important thing today was to try to understand this competition overall,” Emery said in his post-match press conference.
"We wanted to play competitive, and we are in the right way. Today to get one point is very good, we wanted to win but wanted to avoid some mistakes we made in previous games.” In other words, Villa’s desperation to avoid getting done in transition yet again trumped all else.
"It was a very tactical match,” Emery continued. “But we were more or less thinking everything happened in 90 minutes was in our plan. I think this result is fair for both team and I’m really happy."
Emery needs to change things – and fast
For more than an hour, there was literally nothing of note to write about. It made for an uneasy press box, with those expected to file runners – a match report for the first edition newspaper written in tranches as the game unfolds – scrambling to fill their respective word counts. “Anyone know the attendance?” “Team news? Yep, a few pars on that.” “The pre-match fireworks were decent, weren’t they?”
Then Emi Martinez made the sort of save that makes the ditty about him being the world’s No.1 accurate, a strong palm-denying Francisco Conceica. Martinez is now the proud owner of not one but two Yashin trophies, FIFA’s annual award for the planet’s best shot-stopper and Villa Park serenaded him before the game. Mind you, compared to the fuss Manchester City made of Rodri at the weekend after his Ballon d'Or, it was a feeble attempt. It is a good thing Martinez does not share an agent with Yaya Toure.
Villa believed they had claimed what would have been an undeserved winner with the match’s last kick. Morgan Rogers tucked the ball into a gaping goal, but his celebrations were unconvincing. Diego Carlos was penalised for contact on Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio.
“Everybody will know, in England the interpretation is different,” Emery told reporters afterwards. “The England referees, when actions like that the interpretation is a clear no foul but in Europe that interpretation is different.
“When the action happened, I was thinking here in Europe it’s a foul. In England not, but in Europe, I have to accept it.”
Otherwise, the Holte End’s loudest cries were those of derision at the referee, who was happy enough to flash early yellows at Youri Tielemans and Leon Bailey for relatively soft fouls but seemed more reluctant to do so if a Juventus player was the offender. One imagines, though, Jesus Gil Manzano’s English does not stretch to “you’re not fit to referee” in a Witton accent.
It is now seven games since Villa beat Bologna in this tournament. That was their last victory in any competition. The lazy assumption would be that they’ve contracted a minor strain of Newcastle-itis. Juggling the demands of both Premier and Champions leagues is tough.
But that is not quite it. They’re missing a couple of players but there is certainly no injury crisis. Emery named a strong bench – certainly in compared to Thiago Motta’s six-man ensemble that included two goalkeepers.
But they have stagnated a little. They are finding life a bit tricky. In the league, they have drawn games they should have won and claimed three points on occasions where they have not been at their best for more than small patches. Indeed, a glance at the table for the 2024 calendar year shows Villa just above the middle of it and with a negative goal difference. This feels, for now at least, far more rut than crisis. But Emery needs to find a way to climb out of it pretty sharpish.
