Cymru Premier to the Champions League: Aston Villa rival boss' taste of British football ahead of UCL clash

Aston Villa will come up against Club Brugge today and the manager in the home dugout has already had a taste of British football.

The Villains are in Belgium as they face off at the Jan Breydel Stadium. Villa are hoping to preserve their 100% record after beating Young Boys, Bayern Munich, and Bologna.

As for Brugge, they beat Sturm Graz in between defeats to Dortmund and Milan. Ahead of the match, their manager Nicky Hayen spoke of his desire to attack Villa from the off.

In his pre-match conference, he said: “"I always want to attack and start the game in the same way. Aston Villa likes high pressure and they often have double, triple runs on the ball.

“When we breach their first line, we will get chances. We don’t just want to play a beautiful match, but we have to lose this stigma of having to play well to win."

Tonight's match since Hayen come up against British opposition for the first time since he returned to Belgium after a short spell with Welsh club Haverfordwest County. He made the decision to join the Bluebirds in December 2021 after finding himself out of work following his departure from S.K. Beveren.

Haverfordwest were second from bottom when Hayen arrived, he oversaw 11 games in charge. He won six matches, drew one, and tasted defeat four times. At one point, he was manging in front of just 273 supporters.

To add a further bit of context, the Cymru Premier which is Wales’ national league is ranked 49th out of the 55 domestic leagues across Europe with only Georgia, North Macedonia, Andorra, Belarus, Gibraltar, and San Marino ranked lower. He was given the job on a full-time basis, but he was dealing with players who had part-time jobs such as working as a roofer.

When the 2021/22 season ended however, Club Brugge came calling. They wanted him to manage their under-21s team, and then just under two-years later, he found himself in the hot seat for the main job. Former Celtic boss Ronny Deila had been dismissed, and Hayen took over on an interim basis.

He did enough to win the Belgian league title, thus qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. Now he’s tasked with trying to outwit Unai Emery, who has impressive CV in European competitions.