Villa will compete in the UEFA Cup for the first time in seven years if they can overcome one round of the two-legged Intertoto Cup in mid July.

Mellberg, who will join Juventus from Villa after the European Championships on a three-year deal, is full of praise for the likes of Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

But the central defender feels they will improve even more by doing battle in Europe for the first time.

The Sweden international said: "It is always a good experience to play in Europe especially for the players at Villa as they are young like Gabby and Ashley.

"Being involved in some way in those situations is a good learning curve, when you become involved in the UEFA Cup or the Champion League.

key players 

"It is a different sort of thing to normal domestic football, a lot of pressure, and there is a lot of attention which you learn from."

Mellberg has confidence in the future for Villa although the make-up of the squad is different to when he played in that last European campaign.

He said: "People ask me 'is this the best Villa squad I've been involved with' but it is difficult to compare because this is a different situation.

"We have a lot of young talented players and back then we had a lot of older experienced players - Peter Schmeichel, Paul Merson, Ian Taylor, Dion Dublin, Steve Staunton and so on.

"They were great players but probably at the end of their careers. Now we have a lot of young players at the start of their careers who were key players last season.

"But it definitely looks good for the future now. I think it is a time now when Villa are trying to strengthen and establish themselves up there just behind the big four."