Aston Villa secured a big 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the final week of the Premier League, and the result had a direct impact on European competitions for several clubs.
Unai Emery's team was coming off a 3-0 triumph in the Europa League final against Freiburg, and had already secured qualification for the Champions League thanks to winning the European trophy.
For this reason, Emery made some changes to the lineup, activating players such as Marco Bizot, Tyrone Mings, Ross Barkley and Douglas Luiz.
However, the hero of the match was Ollie Watkins, who scored twice to give Aston Villa victory in Pep Guardiola's final game as Manchester City manager.
Antoine Semenyo had given City the lead in the first half, but Watkins turned things around in the second half and took his season tally to 21.
With this success, Aston Villa finished in fourth place, ahead of Liverpool.
According to UEFA rules, Villa uses the place won from the championship for the Champions League, not the one as the winner of the Europa League.
This meant that the reserve place for the Europa League champion went to the club with the highest UEFA coefficient that had not qualified directly.
The team that benefited was Sporting CP, the Portuguese champions, who avoided the qualifying stages and secured direct entry into the Champions League group stage.
Villa's victory also affected Bournemouth.
If Villa finished fifth, Bournemouth would secure the Champions League thanks to the additional European place that England earned from their performances in UEFA competitions.
But with Liverpool finishing in fifth place, the Reds took that extra Champions League place, while Bournemouth had to settle for the Europa League.
The club will enter the new season under the leadership of new coach Marco Rose, following the departure of Andoni Iraola./Express newspaper/
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