Aston Villa waved a dramatic goodbye to Villa Park for this season with a 3-3 draw against Liverpool in their final home game of the season.
The point was not enough to secure Champions League qualification on the night, with Tottenham Hotspur still maintaining an outside chance of pipping The Villans to fourth if they can beat champions Manchester City on Tuesday night.
However, having been 3-1 down with five minutes to go only to level through an inspired Jhon Duran brace off the bench left Villa fans full of optimism that their side can finish the job.
Unai Emery has the opportunity to do something no Villa manager has done since 1983 and manage Villa in Europe’s elite club competition and fans’ attention will be firmly fixed on the Spurs game against City on Tuesday.
John McGinn speaks on Aston Villa Champions League dream
Villa captain John McGinn will be no different.
When the Scotland international joined the club in 2018, Villa were a Championship side. Fast-forward six years and they are on the brink of the Champions League.
McGinn has been an integral part of that journey and Villa journalist John Townley relayed what 29-year-old said on the prospect of finishing in the top four after the Liverpool draw on ‘X’:
“John McGinn: “There’s some of us that have never been close to the Champions League in our life. The manager has a no-excuse mentality. People have written us off and we’ve floated under the radar. We’ll have our Man City tops on tomorrow.”
McGinn was Villa’s driving force in Liverpool comeback
Whilst Duran will rightly earn many of the plaudits for what was an incredible contribution, McGinn’s influence on Monday night should not be looked.
The Villa skipper was everywhere, as he has been all season, as he refused to admit defeat and helped drag his side to a comeback that will talked about for years to come amongst Villa fans.
Emery initially deployed McGinn further forward to allow Youri Tielemans to return to the side alongside Douglas Luiz at the base of the midfield.
His energy, combined with his determination to drive with the ball, was a real asset for Villa and he was equally effective as he dropped back once Tielemans was replaced by Nicolo Zaniolo.
If Villa are to play Champions League football next season, few players will deserve it more than McGinn.
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