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John Brewin was at Villa Park tonight. Here’s his report. Thanks for reading this MBM.
John McGinn has a word with TNT Sports. “Delighted … it was a slow first half … it wasn’t a pretty performance but the main thing is we’re in the quarter final … [Jadon Sancho] was man of the match by a mile tonight.”
During their chat, TNT ran the film of his goal, putting a clock on the time between Nabil Bentaleb’s free kick leaving his boot and McGinn slotting at the other end: 15.3 seconds.
A delighted Jadon Sancho speaks to TNT Sports. “It’s a lovely feeling … tonight’s been incredible … how we stuck to the game-plan, that’s what we needed … hopefully we can keep that momentum going into the Premier League … as soon as I saw [Emi Martinez] get the ball, I kept on running … I believed in him … as I chopped inside I saw John McGinn and I just had to play it to him … I was happy … we missed him a lot … he’s a great guy to be around … happy to assist him today! … it’s going to be a tough competition … if we keep [the game-plan] I’m sure we can go very far.”
That’s a solid European display by Villa. They didn’t rush it. They didn’t panic when Lille came onto them. They held them at arm’s length for the most part, soaked up pressure when they had to, and hit their opponents on the break, twice, both in elegant fashion. The Martinez-Sancho-McGinn counter was a quickfire beaut; the Watkins-Bailey clincher was the result of Emery’s carefully plotted substitutions. Everyone content, and all that’s left to do is wait to find out the winner of Roma-Bologna, because they’ll be playing them in the quarters.
ShareFULL TIME: Aston Villa 2-0 Lille (agg 3-0)
Aston Villa are through to the quarter-finals! A fifth Europa League title for Unai Emery is still on!
90 min +2: Bailey tries to release Elliott into the box with a pass down the right, but overhits it, allowing Ozer to claim. Again, it doesn’t matter.
90 min +1: Ozer faffs around, playing out from the back. A hospital pass to Haraldsson is nicked by Luiz. The ball pings to Watkins, who simply has to pass it a yard to his right to Luiz, and it’s three. But he clanks the pass straight at the prone Ozer. It doesn’t matter.
90 min: There will be three additional minutes. Villa Park en fête.
89 min: Fernandez-Pardo cuts back from the byline to the left of goal. Giroud heads the looping ball into the top right … but the ball had gone well out of play before Fernandez-Pardo crossed.
88 min: Elliot was involved in the build-up as well. Hats off to Unai Emery for that double switch. The manager celebrates wildly on the touchline, in the well-done-me style. Hey, if Martinez can do it, he’s allowed as well.
ShareGOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Lille (Bailey 86); agg 3-0
What a substitution! Less than a minute after coming on, Bailey settles the tie! Watkins is sent into space down the inside-right channel. He rolls across to Bailey, who can’t miss, all alone from 12 yards. Game over!
Leon Bailey makes it safe for Villa. Photograph: Kate McShane/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.47 EDT
85 min: Villa make a double change, sending on Elliott and Bailey for Rogers and Sancho.
84 min: Perraud briefly considers placing both hands around Cash’s neck, the two having wrestled awhile on the centre circle. Then thinks better of it. Cash shoves him back. Come, now, gentlemen.
83 min: Edjouma once again takes on Maatsen down the right. He reaches the byline. Once again he looks to have got past his man; once again he decides to flop over rather than take advantage of his good work. All a bit odd.
81 min: The game goes a bit scrappy. Lille then make their final change, replacing Meunier with Tiago Santos.
79 min: Haraldsson and Edjouma have caused problems since coming on. The third member of that triple switch, Fernandez-Pardo, not so much. He tries to make an impression here, advancing down the left, only to hoick a dismal cross out for a goal kick. Martinez happy to take his sweet time over the restart.
77 min: Edjouma comes again, and sends a power curler towards the top left. Martinez parries well. Lille have responded well to the goal; you have to wonder whether they’d have been better served going for it like this from the get-go.
76 min: Edjouma spins away from Maatsen with absurd ease, and enters the box. He’s got grass to run into, time and space to work with, but decides to go over when Maatsen arrives on his shoulder. There’s little or no contact, so he’s not getting a penalty. A weird decision by Edjouma, who had the beating of his man.
74 min: Buendia and Cash come on for McGinn and Bogarde.
73 min: Before the free kick is taken, Mandi comes on for Alexsandro. Haraldsson and Edjouma then butcher a short free-kick routine, and the ball’s hoofed clear for Watkins to chase. There’s hope, but Ozer races out of his box to blooter clear just before the striker can get there.
72 min: Edjouma dribbles down the inside-right channel and is hug-hauled back by Luiz, who goes into the book.
71 min: Haraldsson wins another Lille corner, this time down the right, and takes it himself. Giroud wins a downward header, which Luiz hooks over the bar. Villa Park is suddenly apprehensive again. But Onana clears the next corner.
69 min: A Lille corner, followed by some head tennis. Villa deal with it fairly well, but this is a crucial period in the game, Lille now of a mind to throw the kitchen sink into the mix, after the triple sub. Villa need to get through this.
67 min: Lille make a triple change, replacing Correia, Mukau and Bouaddi with Fernandez-Pardo, Edjouma and Haraldsson. The latter is almost immediately in the thick of it, racing down the right and going over inside the box under pressure from Luiz. But there’s not enough in the push on his back, and neither referee nor VAR show interest.
65 min: … but that’s opening things up at the back for Villa, who once again counter at speed. Sancho barrels into acres down the right. He’s got Watkins to his left, but he’s also entitled to shoot himself, and that’s what he does, battering a rising howitzer off the right-hand upright and nearly all the way back to the halfway line! That ball stayed hit.
Jadon Sancho hits the post for Villa! Photograph: COLORSPORT/Paul Currie/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 17.27 EDT
64 min: Ozer claims the corner easily enough. Up the other end, Bentaleb floats one into the Villa box from the right, looking for Giroud. Martinez claims. Lille obviously just going for it now, with little to lose.
63 min: Rogers glides in from the left and finds Watkins on the edge of the D. Watkins spins and whistles a low shot inches wide of the bottom left. So close to putting this tie to bed. But it’s a corner, the ball having taken a nick on the way through.
61 min: Rogers slaloms out of defence and creams a long pass down the right for Watkins, who had bent his run well to stay onside. Watkins makes it all the way into the box, but can’t fashion space for a shot. His attempted cutback for Luiz is intercepted, and Lille counter. Bouaddi rolls a pass down the left channel to release Giroud, who meets a ball dropping over his shoulder by lashing it into the top-left corner at 101 mph. One of those that whips the netting violently, the sweetest of sounds, and rolls all around the frame of the goal at pace. But it won’t count, because he’s clearly offside. What a finish, though!
59 min: Sancho wins a corner, which Ozer claims. But how the mood in Villa Park has changed. Everyone roaring now. Lille were pushing hard to level up the tie, and everyone in the grand old pile was getting nervous. Not so much now!
57 min: Meanwhile amid all the celebrations, Watkins comes on for Abraham.
56 min: Martinez races out of his box to celebrate that goal with some vigour. High-kicks and chest-bumps all the way up to halfway! He knows what a magnificent pass upfield that was, and he’s going to enjoy the moment. He deserves it! A pretty decent save, too! And hats off to Sancho for the incisive assist, and McGinn for the calm, elegant finish. That was such fun to watch.
Updated at 17.26 EDT
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Lille (McGinn 54); agg 2-0
Bouaddi is tripped needlessly by Luiz, 25 yards out, to the left of centre. Bentaleb takes the free kick, whipping to the bottom left. Martinez claims, a decent save. He springs up, and sends a long, flat kick upfield to Sancho, racing into space down the right. Sancho doesn’t miscontrol this time! He chops into the box, past Correia, and rolls across for McGinn, free on the penalty spot. McGinn takes a nanosecond to size up the situation, and steers across Ozer and into the bottom right! What a counter!
John McGinn scores for Villa! Photograph: Alex Pantling/UEFA/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.18 EDT
52 min: Villa have had trouble getting out from the back since the restart. So when Rogers plays a clever ball around the corner down the right to release Sancho into acres, things suddenly open up for the hosts. So imagine the sound from the stands when Sancho carelessly clanks the ball out of play for a throw, under no pressure whatsoever. The nerves are jangling all right.
51 min: Correia nearly slips Giroud into the box down the left. Bogarde and Lindelof do well to slam the door shut just in time. The Villa Park crowd are getting anxious, their chatter nervous.
49 min: Bouaddi spins into a bit of space down the left. His low cross is snaffled by Martinez, but only because Lille hadn’t committed anyone in the middle. Villa are sleepwalking a bit here.
47 min: Nothing comes of the resulting corner. But it’s the visiting Lille support who are making more of the noise right now.
46 min: Meunier curls dangerously in from the right. Giroud is about to head home at the near post, but he’s unable to flick past Lindelof, who blocks out for a corner. That’s fine work by Lindelof, because Giroud was almost certainly scoring had the defender not read the danger.
Aston Villa get the second half underway. No changes.
Two English clubs have already bagged themselves a European quarter-final spot tonight. Crystal Palace are through in the Europa League Conference League …
… while Nottingham Forest have made it to the last eight of the Conference League Europa League. Can Villa make it three out of three, placing a cherry atop the cake on a better night for English football? We’ll find out soon enough.
Half-time postbag/essay. “Villa need some energy from somewhere, and with all due respect to Dougie Luiz and Leon Bailey, they haven’t shown much to suggest Villa were wrong to off-load them in the first place. I’d have kept Malen, and would far rather him in Birmingham and Bailey in Rome.
“Bogarde is a solid but unadventurous presence at right-back and he rather self-nullifies any overlapping right-wing threat. Hoping switching Rogers and Sancho, and Ollie being on the bench helps to open up a new dimension to an attack that has grown very stale without Tielemans’ vision and quality of pass to drive from midfield.
“Ultimately, this Lille side showed little last week to have me very worried, but it would be nice to get a decent result again to offset the repeated blows to squad confidence in the league.
“We so desperately need Youri back (Kamara, too, but alas not possible) and whilst it’s an indictment of club squad-planning in itself that those two players are so irreplaceably critical to Villa performances, I’ve got my fingers crossed that his return in the not-too-distant future will arrest the league decline and help Emery to his fifth Europa League win!
“Oh, and you’re totally right – Villa’s pennant is deeply underwhelming!” – Benjamin Gravestock
ShareHALF TIME: Aston Villa 0-0 Lille (agg 1-0)
Nothing much to report, but Villa are one step closer to the quarters.
45 min: There will be one additional first-half minute.
43 min: Ozer claims the corner without fuss.
42 min: Abraham, buzzing around, forces Perraud into the clumsy concession of a corner. McGinn sends it in from the right. Onana wins a header, flicking the ball towards the top left. Ozer claws it out, spectacularly so. Sancho can’t ram home the rebound from close range, the ball not quite dropping for him, but he does win a second corner in the sequence. From which …
40 min: Bentaleb sprays a diagonal towards Perraud on the Lille left. Perraud creams a first-time cross into the Villa box, but Martinez is on point to claim under pressure from Correia and Giroud. Then, with Lille having committed players to attack, Rogers goes long to send Abraham scampering after the ball down the middle. Ozer comes out of the box to clear, just in time. The game suddenly opening up.
38 min: … and now Meunier cynically clips Maatsen’s ankle on the left flank. This challenge earns a stern talking-to, at least.
37 min: Mukau comes through the back of Onana, and is the latest player to escape more serious censure than the shrill parp of a whistle. To be fair, none of these challenges have been particularly unpleasant; it’s merely that a fussier referee might have got card-happy. And there’s not a great deal else to talk about.