After a 41-year wait, Aston Villa are back in the Champions League. Birmingham had to wait more than four decades to taste victory in the top continental competition, but the wait was worth it. A 3-0 victory over Young Boys and a clear message from Unai Emery’s men: they are not here just for the time being.
The Villains, with goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana, overcame their first hurdle in this renewed group stage and picked up the three points in their visit to Basel.
Young Boys, without any big names, relied on their supporters to play some twenty minutes of good football, with long-range attacks, which soon came to nothing when Emery and his team’s strategy worked.
From a corner, John McGinn found Tielemans at the far post, who brought the ball down and before the Swiss could pounce on him, crossed it into the net as it fell.
The goal opened the scoring for Young Boys, who could have conceded three goals in ten minutes.
Their defending was tepid and nervous, and at times inexplicable, such as when Mohamed Ali Camara, inside his own area, innocently gave the ball to the goalkeeper. Ollie Watkins appeared to steal his wallet and then stumbled the ball to Ramsey to score into a practically empty net.
These were Villa’s first Champions League goals since Peter White scored in the 1983 quarter-final against Juventus, a year after they had been crowned European champions against Bayern Munich.
Considering how long the wait had been for a team that less than two years ago was fighting to avoid relegation from the Premier League, the match was extremely calm and could have ended in a rout had it not been for the VAR disallowing a goal by Watkins and another by Jhon Durán for handball at the start of the play.
With five minutes remaining, the VAR had nothing to say about Amadou Onana’s goal, who did not hesitate from thirty meters and put the ball next to the right post of the Young Boys goalkeeper.
The ‘Villains’ next game in the competition will be on October 2, a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final against Bayern.
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