Much has been made of Aston Villa’s return to the European elite competition after a 41-year absence. It’s been a long wait for some Villa fans and others, it’s their first taste of Villa in the Champions League.
Despite all the excitement since they qualified on May 14th last season, it only really felt when the Champions League anthem started before tonight’s fixture.
It’s real. Aston Villa are Champions League and boy, did we let the rest of Europe know with an emphatic victory in Switzerland this evening.
Unai Emery stuck with the same side that started in the 3-2 win over Everton, in the Premier League on Saturday. Villa were favourites with the hardest obstacle being the artificial surface at the Wankdorf Stadium.
The home side enjoyed the best early chances despite Villa dominating the ball. The visitors appeared to be struggling to get to grips with the surface and they could have paid the price when Ebrima Colley threatened the Villa goal but Emiliano Martínez was equal to his effort.
However, the visitors took the lead through a routine straight from the Austin MacPhee set-piece book. Lucas Digne played a short ball from the corner spot to John McGinn and curled a beautiful cross to the far end of the box, picking out an unmarked Youri Tielemans. The Belgian had time to bring the ball down before firing into the far corner to score Villa’s first goal of their Champions League campaign.
Villa took control of the game and soon doubled their lead. Goalkeeper David von Ballmoos looked to have brought down Ollie Watkins in the box but the officials allowed the game to play on as Jacob Ramsey steered the ball into the bottom corner.
Watkins then thought he had got in on the goalscoring only for VAR to harshly chalk off his goal due to handball. Although the rule states if the ball is handled in a build-up to a goal, how VAR could tell if it hit his arm is beyond me.
Villa had a second goal ruled out 12 minutes from time when substitute Jhon Durán finished a beautiful move. Once again, VAR ruled it out due to a handball by Amadou Onana.
Onana, who received plenty of stick from his former club Everton the weekend put the icing on the cake late on with a sweet strike from 25 yards out to score his third goal this season and give Villa all three points.
Youri Tielemans continued his fine start to the season with another great performance. Many were worried about the loss of Douglas Luiz in the summer to Juventus but the Belgian has stepped up. He dictated the midfield after a slow start from Villa and chipped in with the opening goal of the evening.
Emery: “Of course, we tried to follow 42 years ago when they achieved the last victory in the Champions League winning the trophy,”
“We want to dedicate this victory to Gary Shaw, his family and all the supporters of Aston Villa. We are going to try and get in our way following in that moment what they achieved.”
Aston Villa return to Premier League action on Saturday when they welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to Villa Park for the West Midlands derby.
