Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport senior journalist

Image source, Reuters

At the time it felt like a surprise appointment for semi-professional Haverfordwest County of the Cymru Premier.

Three years on, and with the manager who joined them on New Year's Eve 2021 leading his current side into a Champions League knockout tie against Aston Villa, it seems scarcely believable.

Nicky Hayen was the first Belgian to manage in the Welsh Premier League and remains one of only a handful of non-British or non-Irish managers to do so.

The 44-year-old's ascent to the latter stages of Europe's top-tier competition with Club Brugge, who knocked out Europa League holders Atalanta in the play-offs, has been as rapid as it has been impressive.

Now he is being touted as one of Europe's "hottest properties", and one pundit even suggested Hayen could be Arne Slot's replacement at Liverpool.

Read the full article on the BBC Sport website

Image source, Getty Images

Club Brugge beat Villa in the league phase, one of only two defeats suffered by Aston Villa.

However, Unai Emery believes his Villa side now will be very different to the one that lost to the Belgians last time.

"We played here in November and we're now in March. Hopefully we can do better now," he said.

"When we played here we weren't competing like I want to do. The players know and we analysed why we didn't compete in that moment like we can hopefully do [now]."

Image source, Getty Images

January loan signings Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio have made a big impact since joining Aston Villa, with the latter scoring four goals and the former providing assists for three of them.

Villa boss Unai Emery expects them both to be key players for their aspirations in Europe.

"We added players with experience in Europe and in this competition. Usually, they are players playing in the highest level who can help us a lot," Emery said.

"The process they are doing, progressively adapting to us, is going well... We are not going to get our objective only through individual players. We are going to get it collectively, building our structure as strong as possible.

"Once we have our structure, individual players can exploit their skills. This is the challenge we have."

Real Madrid will be without Jude Bellingham in tonight's first leg after the England midfielder picked up a third yellow card of his Champions League campaign in the play-off tie against Manchester City.

A blow for Real, and Bellingham, but he'll be back for the all-important second leg.

Image source, Getty Images

Marcus Rashford starts his first Champions League match since being sent off for Manchester United against FC Copenhagen in November 2023.

Tyrone Mings, whose error resulted in a penalty from which Club Brugge scored the winner when the teams met in November, also returns to the starting XI.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Disasi, Konsa, Mings, Digne, McGinn, Tielemans, Bailey, Rogers, Rashford, Watkins.

Substitutes: Kamara, Ramsey, Bogarde, Maatsen, Asensio, Torres, Cash, Zych, Olsen.

Former Norwich winger Christos Tzolis starts for Club Brugge along with ex-Liverpool and Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.

Hans Vanaken, who scored the winner from the penalty spot when the two sides met in November, also starts.

Club Brugge XI: Mignolet, Sabbe, Ordonez, Mechele, De Cuyper, Nwadike, Jashari, Talbi, Vanaken, Tzolis, Jutgla.

Substitutes: Jackers, Romero, Vetlesen, Vermant, Nilsson, Skoras, Nielsen, Siquet, Spileers, Campbell.

Pat Nevin
Former Chelsea winger on BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

It's going to be difficult for Aston Villa to put down a marker because have a look at their away record, it's not been absolutely brilliant.

I was at the Monaco game - they were not a great team and Villa just didn't do that well.

At home they've been really good and some of the additions and players coming back from injury gives them a right good chance. But, away from home you've got to be hard to beat and belligerent.

It goes back to the old one - be in the game for the second leg, stay in the tie and get back to Villa Park. If they can get a win it's party time and they can really enjoy it.

Team news has just dropped and Marco Asensio, who has scored four goals for Aston Villa, is on the bench but Marcus Rashford starts.

Full team news to come.

Image source, Getty Images

Welcome to Uefa Champions League Squares - the new BBC Sport game which you can play alongside the live match action.

Answer four trivia questions for the chance to edit your randomly generated Squares bingo-style gamecard, and then see how many squares you are able to mark off when those events happen in real time that evening.

There will be a new game for every Champions League matchday from now until the end of the season.

Go to the BBC Sport website to play

Hello!

The first four of the last-16 ties take place today with Aston Villa kicking off the action at Club Brugge, before Arsenal take on PSV in Eindhoven.

Here's the fixture list in full:

17:45 GMT

Club Brugge v Aston Villa

20:00 GMT

Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid

Borussia Dortmund v Lille

PSV Eindhoven v Arsenal

Image source, Getty Images

The group stage and the subsequent play-offs are over and now we are into the business end of the Champions League - the knockouts.

Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa are the Premier League sides remaining in the competition dreaming of European glory, with the latter two in action this evening.