Supercomputer predicts how the Champions League will unfold for Aston Villa, Celtic, and Liverpool

Aston Villa have been predicted to qualify for the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League, ahead of the likes of AC Milan, PSG and Juventus.

The Villains opened their league phase campaign with a 3-0 win at the Wankdorft Stadium against Swiss outfit BSC Young Boys last week. Yourie Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey, and Amadou Onana were all on target in what was a memorable night in Switzerland, having spent more than 40 years away from Europe’s top table.

Villa have Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup next before a trip to Ipswich Town at the weekend, but then on Wednesday, October 2, they host six-time winners Bayern Munich. It's set to be an exciting night at Villa Park, and despite the high ticket prices, the match should sell out.

Unai Emery is an ambitious manager, and he’s not one for just participating, he wants silverware. Football is a sport played on a pitch rather than an excel sheet, but the data experts are predicting that Villa will progress to the knockout stages.

They've got matches agains Bologna, Club Brugge, Juventus, Leipzig, and Monaco to come after Bayern Munich with the league phase wrapped up in mid-January. A preliminary knockout round will take place between the teams that finished between ninth and 24th, and the supercomputer is predicting that Villa will finish four places below a top eight place, which means an extra two games for them.

*The simulation was done by Piotr Klimek, which was produced in to a graphic by Football Rankings.

Predicted Champions League table (xPts, xGD, Top 8, Top 16, Top 24)

Manchester City - xPTS: 16.96, xGD: 14.42, Top 8: 77.1%, Top 16: 96.5%, Top 24: 99.8%. 

Borussia Dortmund - xPTS: 16.65, xGD: 11.50, Top 8: 71.5%, Top 16: 95.2%, Top 24: 99.6%

Bayern Munich - xPTS: 16.28 xGD: 14.83, Top 8: 68.6%, Top 16: 93.4%, Top 24: 99.3%

Real Madrid - xPTS: 16.43 xGD: 10.84, Top 8: 66.1%, Top 16: 91.2%, Top 24: 99.0%

Bayer Leverkusen - xPTS: 16.17 xGD: 11.14, Top 8: 64.3%, Top 16: 92.1%, Top 24: 99.3%

Inter - xPTS: 15.83, xGD: 10.19, Top 8: 60.2%, Top 16: 90.2%, Top 24: 98.7%.

Arsenal - xPTS: 14.91, xGD: 9.96, Top 8: 47.4%, Top 16: 85.3%, Top 24: 98.6%.

Liverpool - xPTS: 14.87, xGD: 6.19, Top 8: 44.2%, Top 16: 79.3%, Top 24: 96.6%.

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Barcelona - 14.08, 8.08, 37.0%, 75.5%, 95.7%

Atletico Madrid - 14.18, 4.86, 33.7%, 72.6%, 95.0%

Atalanta - 13.82, 6.38, 32.0%, 72.4%, 95.1%

Aston Villa - 13.29, 3.91, 24.9%, 61.5%, 90.5%

Stuttgart - 13.23, 3.39, 25.2%, 61.6%, 89.9%

PSG - 13.06, 1.59, 21.7%, 57.4%, 89.5%

AS Monaco - 12.73, 0.32, 16.6%, 54.2%, 88.8%

Sporting CP - 12.50, 1.62, 18.1%, 51.8%, 84.6%

Leipzig - 12.09, 2.70, 17.5%, 51.2%, 84.0%

Juventus - 12.24, 1.43, 16.7%, 49.6%, 84.5%

AC Milan - 12.11, 2.06, 11.0%, 48.7%, 85.6%

Benfica - 11.96, -1.03, 12.5%, 42.6%, 81.0%

PSV - 11.62, 1.39, 11.3%, 41.9%, 79.0%

Girona - 10.87, 1.92, 8.0%, 33.1%, 72.2%

Celtic - 10.43, -1.54, 4.3%, 23.7%, 66.1%

Sparta Praha - 9.54, -4.42, 2.2%, 14.7%, 51.9%

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Stade Brestois - 9.43, -5.32, 2.9%, 15.9%, 50.8%

Bologna - 9.06, -3.44, 2.0%, 14.2%, 47.5%

Lille - 9.01, -3.51, 1.5%, 13.5%, 48.4%

Feyenoord - 7.81, -8.49, 0.4%, 5.2%, 28.8%

Salzburg - 7.80, -8.50, 0.4%, 4.8%, 28.6%

Club Brugge - 7.49, -8.24, 0.4%, 5.6%, 27.6%

Dinamo Zagreb - 6.42, -14.11, 0.3%, 2.4%, 15.2%

Sturm Graz - 5.75, -10.00, 0.1%, 1.4%, 11.5%

Shaktar Donetsk - 5.62, -12.30, 0.1%, 0.9% 7.9%

Young Boys - 5.01, -13.62, 0.1%, 0.5%, 5.7%

Crvena zvezda - 4.19, -13.24, 0.1%, 0.2%, 3.6%

Slovan Bratislava - 3.16, -20.97, 0.1%, 0.1%, 0.7%