They are currently two of the best playing teams in world football and have two of the best managers in Unai Emery and Xabi Alonso, and they are on their way to the next round in Europe.
Those two teams are Aston Villa and Bayer Leverkusen.
Villa today squeaked out a win in penalties away to Lille.
Lille carried much of this game but keeper Emiliano Martinez tapped into his 2022 World Cup magic, keeping the Villans in it for 120 minutes, and then in penalties stopping the first and fifth Lille shooters.
Douglas Luis, Villa’s expert penalty-taker sealed it for the visitors.
Emery’s men will face Olympiacos in the next round of the Conference League.
As for Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen – well they remain undefeated this season after drawing 1-1 at West Ham’s London Stadium.
Undefeated. Some people call that invincible.
Well that invincibility almost did not endure as the Hammers took an early lead through Michail Antonio and held onto it for most of the match as they looked for a second-goal that would extend the tie into extra-time.
Instead Alonso’s men found the next goal through Jeremie Frimpong in the final minute of regular time and that was that for West Ham.
Leverkusen will face Roma in the next round of Europa League action.