Unai Emery takes Villa back to Barcelona scene of his epic Champions League loss with PSG

GENEVA (AP) — Unai Emery returns to Barcelona this week for the first time in the Champions League since losing one of the most epic games in the competition’s 72-season history.

Emery takes Aston Villa, second in the 36-team standings, to Camp Nou on Tuesday for a standout game in the week that Harry Kane chases a Champions League record when Bayern Munich goes to Atletico Madrid and Manchester United’s imploding season brings Roma next to Old Trafford.

Villa sits only behind defending champion Paris Saint-Germain, which Emery led to Barcelona in March 2017 with 4-0 lead from the round of 16 first leg — and somehow let it slip in regulation time.

Barcelona’s 6-1 win over PSG, “La Remontada” or “The Comeback,” is part of Champions League lore worthy of its own Wikipedia page.

Emery never came back to Camp Nou in the Champions League at his next jobs with Arsenal nor Villarreal, but will arrive with Villa as a hugely respected coach of a progressive team whose latest rebuild is going faster than expected.

Villarreal hosts PSG — now coached by Luis Enrique, who was Barcelona boss a decade ago — on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Premier League leader Arsenal is at Slavia Prague and Real Madrid plays at AEK Athens.

Sporting Lisbon goes to London to face Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, one day after coach Rui Borges is reported to have left, with Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca said to be the intended replacement.

After Tuesday, Emery will have faced Barcelona more often than any other club in his impressive career. The Catalan giant also has been his toughest opponent.

His teams won just three of 30 games against Barcelona so far, including PSG’s 4-0 in 2017 and Villarreal’s 2-0 win at Camp Nou on the last La Liga round in May 2022.

Villa has carried the form of last season's Europa League title — the fifth of Emery’s career — with three straight wins in the Champions League and 12 goals scored, three by in-form Senegal forward Nicolas Jackson.

Four years into his time at Villa Park, where he has wide input to key decisions, Emery has been controversially linked to a Manchester United job expected soon to be vacant.

Manchester United is tied for 20th in the Champions League standings — and 17th in the Premier League compared with Villa’s ninth — with coach Michael Carrick being judged game-by-game in the club’s latest dysfunctional season.

Maybe United’s luck will turn Tuesday facing a Roma club that has won just one of its 21 UEFA competition games in England, and none of the last 16.

That winless run includes Carrick scoring twice in a 7-1 rout in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals in 2007.

Liverpool’s results in Turkey are similarly bad, despite the “Miracle of Istanbul” final in Istanbul in 2005, won on penalties against AC Milan after a 3-3 draw.

The six-time European champion never won a European Cup or Champions League away game against a Turkish club, and last season lost twice at Galatasaray, 1-0 each time.

This time Liverpool plays on Wednesday at Fenerbahce which appointed its former player, and one-time Anfield star, Dirk Kuyt as interim coach in a difficult season. Kuyt scored for Liverpool in the 2007 final rematch won by Milan in Athens.

Harry Kane’s first Champions League game as a Ballon d’Or winner could see him tie a competition record held by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Starting in the 2017 final, won by Real Madrid against Juventus, and into the next season Ronaldo scored in 11 straight Champions League games, getting 17 goals in total.

Kane has scored in all 10 of Bayern’s Champions League games in 2026, getting 13 goals so far.

The former Tottenham star did not score at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium on his previous visit for the 2019 final that Liverpool won 2-0. The final returns there this season.

Bodø/Glimt has a perfect record in Champions League home games this year, with a stellar list of losing visitors: Manchester City, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon and Borussia Dortmund.

Lille is the next arrival Tuesday to the Arctic Circle fishing town, where the wind is set to whip across the Aspmyra Stadium at 40 kph (25 mph) gusts at the 9 p.m. local time (2000 gmt) kickoff.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Aston Villa's Nicolas Jackson celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Manchester City in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Morgan Harlow)

Manchester United's head coach Michael Carrick gestures as he leaves the pitch after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Como and Manchester United in Como, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Bayern Munich's Harry Kane holds the Ballon d'Or trophy ahead of the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, controls the ball past PSG's Achraf Hakimi, right, during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

FILE - Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery celebrates with the trophy after the Europa League final soccer match between Freiburg and Aston Villa in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A person in Washington state has died from complications of the bird flu, the first such U.S. death in a year.

The Yakima County resident, who had previous health conditions, was exposed to avian influenza at a dairy with infected cattle and had been hospitalized. The person died Sunday, county health officials said.

Two other U.S. deaths have been tied to bird flu since it became a national public health concern in 2024. The first, announced in January 2025, was an elderly person in Louisiana who had a version of bird flu known as H5N1. The other, in Washington state, died in November 2025 from a rarer version called H5N5.

Yakima County officials did not release any additional details about the person who recently died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the person was infected with H5N1.

County officials have reported that 33 dairy herds recently have tested positive for H5N1.

They say three human infections have been linked to exposure at a dairy, and that the Yakima Health District is working with the state health department to find people who were in close contact with those people and monitor them for symptoms.

The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry, cows and other animals for several years. Health concerns escalated in early 2024 when infections spread among U.S. livestock. Its presence in the environment increases the chances that people will be exposed, and potentially catch it, officials have said.

More than 70 human infections have been reported in the U.S. since the beginning of 2024, according to the CDC. But there is no known person-to-person spread and the risk to the general public is low, the agency says.

The agency analyzed the genetic sequence of the virus from the person who died in Washington and found no changes that would make the virus spread more easily or cause more severe illness, a CDC spokesperson said Monday.

Officials continue to urge people who have contact with sick or dead birds to take precautions, including wearing respiratory and eye protection and gloves when handling poultry. People who work on farms are considered to be at higher risk.

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FILE - This colorized electron microscope image released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on March 26, 2024, shows avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells (blue). (CDC/NIAID via AP, File)