BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Prince William watched his beloved Aston Villa as it hosted Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Prince of Wales and future King of England is a lifelong fan of the Premier League team and was part of the crowd for its first home game in European soccer's elite competition for 41 years.
William met members of Villa's 1982 European Cup winning team and posed for pictures before the match at Villa Park before watching the much-anticipated match.
“42 years on, our 1982 European Cup winning legends are here on an historic night,” he wrote on X. “Ready for the first game on home turf in this year’s European adventure...”
William, who is also patron of the English Football Association, sat in an executive box and was dressed casually in a dark blue button-up coat over a maroon sweater and blue shirt.
He was up and cheering with the rest of the home crowd when Pau Torres appeared to have fired Villa into a 23rd-minute lead only for the goal to be ruled out by VAR for offside.
Villa's last game in the European Cup — as it was formerly known — was against Juventus in 1983 when it was defending champion. It was eliminated in the quarterfinals and has had to wait more than four decades to make a return.
Bayern was a fitting opponent for its first home game back in the competition, given Villa caused a major upset by beating the German champion 1-0 in the final of 1982 to win the trophy for the first on only time in its history.
William joined England great David Beckham on Tuesday for the launch of two new air ambulances in London.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The Associated Press
