BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Prince William looked at his beloved Aston Villa host 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 before that first home match in European football’s elite competition in 41 years.

William met members of Villa’s 1982 European Cup winning team and posed before the match at Villa Park before watching the highly anticipated match.

“42 years later, our legends who won the 1982 European Cup are here on a historic evening,” he wrote on

William, who is also a patron of the English Football Association, was sitting in an executive box and dressed casually in a dark blue button-up jacket over a maroon jumper and a blue shirt.

He cheered with the rest of the home crowd as Pau Torres appeared to have given Villa the lead in the 23rd minute, only for the goal to be ruled out by VAR for offside.

Villa’s last match in the European Cup, as it was previously known, was against Juventus in 1983, when the country were defending champions. It was eliminated in the quarter-finals and had to wait more than forty years before returning.

Bayern were a fitting opponent for its first home game in the competition as Villa caused a major upset by beating the German champions 1-0 in the 1982 final to win the trophy for the first time in its history.

William joined English great David Beckham on Tuesday for the launch of two new air ambulances in London.

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AP football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer