Aston Villa win over Man City secures Champions League qualification for another club

Aston Villa's 2-1 victory over Manchester City on the final day of the Premier League season has secured automatic Champions League qualification for another club.

Unai Emery's side came into Sunday off the back of their 3-0 Europa League final triumph over Freiburg.

With players having understandably looked slightly worse for wear during their trophy parade on Friday, Emery jokingly admitted that he would 'try' when asked whether he could field a competitive team at the Etihad Stadium.

But with Villa having secured Champions League qualification by winning the Europa League - they would have done regardless - there was nothing especially riding on their final game of the season.

That allowed Emery to make several changes to his side, with goalkeeper Marco Bizot, defender Tyrone Mings and midfielders Ross Barkley and Douglas Luiz among those coming into the XI.

But it was Ollie Watkins, off the back of being announced as part of England's World Cup squad, who netted a brace to help Villa to an outstanding victory in what was Pep Guardiola's final match as Manchester City manager.

Antoine Semenyo had opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half, before Watkins struck twice in the second 45 minutes to take his seasonal goal tally up to 21.

A perfectly-timed run from Ollie Watkins to give Aston Villa the lead at the Etihad! 👌 pic.twitter.com/aS07dO9DvG

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 24, 2026

Their victory cements their spot in fourth place ahead of Liverpool.

That means, under UEFA regulations, they have accepted the Champions League qualification spot for their domestic league position rather than as Europa League titleholders.

That titleholder spot has been passed on to the highest-ranked team in UEFA's club co-efficient system not already qualified for the Champions League group stage.

The team in question is Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, who won Liga Portugal to qualify for the Champions League but were facing the prospect of having to go through qualifying.

As per Foot Rankings, they are projected to enter pot two of the 2026/27 draw, alongside Aston Villa.

Villa's victory over City also had a knock-on effect on Bournemouth, who would have secured Champions League football if Villa had finished fifth.

That is because England earned one of the two additional European Performance spots for high performance in UEFA competitions, meaning that the fifth-placed team makes it into next season's Champions League.

With Liverpool finishing fifth and not qualifying for the tournament by any other metric, they take the European Performance spot over Bournemouth, who finished sixth and will instead play Europa League football under new manager Marco Rose following Andoni Iraola's departure.