Young Boys 0-3 Aston Villa
Aston Villa’s long awaited return to the Champions League couldn’t have got off to a much better start in Switzerland. 41 years after the European Cup winning heroes of 1982 embarked on Villa’s last campaign in Europe’s top competition, Unai Emery’s new crop of stars did justice to the memory of Gary Shaw – one of those heroes of 1982 – who just this week sadly passed away.
A tricky test away at Swiss champions Young Boys was the assignment, on the type of artificial surface which has caught out many higher profile teams down the years, and Villa struggled to adapt to the surface in the early stages of the tie.
Young Boys came out with verve and intensity, causing Aston Villa a few early problems, particularly down their left hand side against the inexperienced Lamare Bogarde in for the injured Matty Cash at right back.
Villa gradually grew into the game as they got to grips with the surface, and they had their first real opening when Ollie Watkins cushioned a header from a long ball into the path of the onrushing John McGinn, who guided a left-footed shot wide of the post.
Then came Villa’s first goal of the night. It was a short corner to McGinn, who crossed high and deep to the unmarked Youri Tielemans, who took it down expertly and rifled a low shot through the crowd of players to get Villa off the mark.
It was a nicely worked set-piece – something we are getting used to seeing from Aston Villa – and one that visibly pleased set-piece coach Austin McPhee, who is really earning his money of late.
Watkins was beginning to get opportunities, aided by the powerful running and expert ball control of Morgan Rogers in-particular. Rogers has become a key player for Aston Villa since his arrival from Middlesborough in January, and if he can add more direct goal involvements to his fantastic all round play, he can’t be far away from an England call up.
Villa’s second came about in calamitous fashion from Young Boys’ perspective – defender Banhie Zoukrou tried to pass back to his goalkeeper in a crowded box, but Watkins was alert to it and nicked the ball only to go down under challenge, then Jacob Ramsey pounced to put the ball into an empty net.
Not long after that Watkins thought he had finally got his goal, only to be harshly judged by VAR to have handled the ball before applying the finish, as Villa went in at half-time 2-0 to the good.
Diego Carlos was introduced at the start of the second half in place of the struggling Bogarde, and Carlos almost gave Young Boys a way back into the match with a very risky pass in his defensive third. Luckily Emi Martinez was as alert as ever and made a smart low stop from Silvere Ganvoula.
Ollie Watkins was replaced on the hour mark by a man in red-hot form, John Duran, fresh from his match-winning stunner against Everton at the weekend. And it didn’t take long for Duran to hit the back of the net with a sumptuous guided finish into the bottom left corner – only for VAR to again intervene and rule the goal out due to another handball in the build-up, this time from Andre Onana.
Onana would atone for his error late on with a thumping 25-yard drilled effort to make it 3-0, rounding off a mightily impressive night for Villa, who didn’t look at all out of place or over-awed by their new surroundings, in this the biggest competition in club football.
Next up on the Champions League agenda for Villa though is a whole different animal in the form of 6 times champions Bayern Munich, led by a bang in-form Harry Kane. It will be some atmosphere at Villa Park when the Champions League anthem rings out for the first time – and Unai Emery has got this Aston Villa squad rightly believing they can get positive results against the very best in the business.
Man of the Match – Youri Tielemans