Aston Villa host a side on Wednesday night that was in the Norwegian second tier eight years ago. Viking FK of Stavanger arrive at Villa Park for a 20:00 kick-off in the Champions League with a story that is hard to match. They ended a 34-year wait for a league title last season, and their captain has been telling the whole continent what that felt like.
A 3-3 draw nobody saw coming
Viking's last Champions League match was a 3-3 draw with Bayern Munich. They led 2-0 at half-time and needed a last-minute goal to rescue the point, having lost 3-1 at Stuttgart before that. Afterwards, captain Zlatko Tripic told Norwegian broadcaster TV2: "I could have played another 90 minutes. I'm so incredibly proud. I've waited 34 years for this." Tripic, 33, set up two of the goals against Bayern, including the equaliser.
He joined the club in the second tier in 2018, straight after relegation, and has since reached double figures for both goals and assists in three consecutive seasons, which no Viking player had managed before.
Two coaches, one job
The way the club is run is unusual too. Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim are joint head coaches, both promoted from assistant in 2021. They shared the job on a simple basis. "We said let's do it together," Aarsheim explained, believing it improved their chances of getting it. They won last season's title on the final day, beating Valerenga 5-1 to stay one point clear of Bodo/Glimt, and Viking are top again this season, three points ahead of Bodo having played a game more.
There is a Villa link on the touchline as well. Pal Fjall, Villa's set-piece coach, used to be an assistant at Viking, and Jensen noticed it. He described the club's group fixtures, which also include Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Bayern at home, as the whole buffet.
From relegation to Europe's top table
This is Viking's ninth league title, although six of them came between 1972 and 1982. They were relegated in 2017 after, in the words of one fan, spending too much on players who were not good enough. The reset was a return to local players and the youth academy, and they won the Norwegian Cup in 2019. Roy Hodgson managed them for 18 months from 2004 to 2005, and they knocked Chelsea out of the Uefa Cup in 2002 with a 5-4 aggregate win.
Villa beat Newcastle 1-0 on Saturday, and on paper they should be too strong. But a team that led Bayern 2-0 will not be overawed by anyone. My prediction is a Villa win, though a narrow one, with Viking scoring.
Match facts: Aston Villa v Viking, Champions League, Villa Park, Wednesday 21 October, 20:00 BST. Viking drew 3-3 with Bayern Munich and lost 3-1 at Stuttgart earlier in the league phase. This is their first European group stage since the 2005-06 Uefa Cup.
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