No player around these parts quite understands just what the outcome of these next two games could mean for Villa quite like John Carew.

For all the top-four talk and Champions League chatter that’s hung over Martin O’Neill’s team these past two seasons, few have actually experienced what it’s like to play in Europe’s elite competition.

Of the players, Carlos Cuellar has relished it with Osasuna, Emile Heskey has lived it with Liverpool and Habib Beye has marvelled at it while at Marseille.

But Carew can do even better – having gone all the way to the final.

Regrettably, the 30-year-old has no winner’s medal to treasure after his Valencia team agonisingly lost out on penalties to Bayern Munich in 2001.

But the well-travelled Norwegian, who can also count Lyon, Roma and Fenerbahce among his former clubs, is under no illusions exactly what reaching what O’Neill has described as the holy grail would mean to Villa, as they head into tomorrow’s crunch showdown with top-four rivals Manchester City.

And the Holte End favourite believes experiencing it is the logical next step in the development of stars like James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor.

He said: “It’s the highest quality of football. You will meet the best players from Spain, Italy and so on, it’s completely different.

“You meet different cultures. You see some amazing footballers that you hardly knew existed. If you manage to cover all the football in Europe then you will learn quite a lot.

“It’s limited what you can learn by yourself. Sometimes you pick up things from players that you meet, certainly in the Champions League. For any players – strikers, midfielders, defenders.

“I tried to pick up things when I was younger from strikers in the Champions League. I was playing for one of the best teams in the world and I was obviously quite good to be playing for them.

“But still on the big scene I managed to meet the best players in the world from different countries and I started to pick up things.

“In England you have the Frank Lampards and the Steven Gerrards. When you go to Spain or Italy you see players that are as good as Gerrard and Lampard, but in a different way.

“With the technical aspect, you’ll see skills that you’ve never seen before. Anything can happen. All countries have different ways of playing.

“For example, you see Xavi at Barcelona. Lampard and Gerrard do things he can do but he can do things they can never do. You need to see this.

“He’s the best playmaker in the world and everyone can learn from the best playmaker in the world. Just to see the touch and vision of Andres Iniesta and Xavi, you’re going to learn.

“Imagine for a young player, James Milner for example, to see that kind of football and to add to his game.

“He can be as good as he can.”

Three straight wins have renewed hope fifth-placed Villa could make a late dash to snatch the fourth and final Champions League spot.

They head to Eastlands level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham and one ahead of their hosts, having played a game more than the pair.

Carew continued: “We said that it we won the last five games then we’d have a chance, now we’ve won three of them and you can see what has happened.

“Nine points has changed the situation completely and we have a shot now. Of course, it’s not only depending on what we do, we need some luck on our side.

“But if we win the last five games then we’d have a real chance and would have done all we can do. We would have 70 points which is still a fantastic season.

“It’s exciting for the Champions League place, but also for in general with which team is going to win the league.

“It hasn’t been this exciting for a long time, for us and for people who follow English football it’s been an amazing season.”