Prince William gives Aston Villa's Champions League triumph royal seal of approval with four-word message
A delighted Prince William declared “See you in Paris” after watching his beloved Aston Villa book their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The heir to the throne was among the 42,461 in attendance at Villa Park as Unai Emery’s team completed a 6-1 aggregate victory over Club Brugge on Wednesday night.
That set-up a quarter-final showdown against Paris Saint-Germain, with Villa scheduled to visit the French capital for the first leg on Wednesday, April 9.
William, a regular attendee at Villa’s European matches, briefly stopped as he left the ground after the final whistle and gave the night the royal seal of approval as he told reporters: “See you in Paris.”
Earlier, His Royal Highness had celebrated in the stands as two goals from Marco Asensio and an Ian Maatsen strike earned Villa a comfortable win over Brugge.
Unai Emery’s team were already big favourites to progress through the last-16 tie after claiming a 3-1 win in last week’s first leg in Belgium.
And they promptly sealed the deal by blowing away their visitors, who had been reduced to 10-men when Kyriani Sabbe was sent-off early on, in a blistering second half display.
William, a Villa supporter since childhood, attended the club’s home wins over Bayern Munich and Celtic earlier in the competition, while he also travelled to January’s 1-0 defeat in Monaco.
He is among the thousands of fans now hoping their team can beat Paris to continue their superb run, in what will be the most high-profile match involving a club from the West Midlands since Villa played Juventus in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, 42 years ago.
