{"id":588703,"date":"2026-04-17T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588703\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:08:08","slug":"aston-villa-4-0-bologna-apr-16-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588703\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa 4-0 Bologna (Apr 16, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa<\/a> blew Bologna<\/a> away with a trio of first-half goals as they roared into the semifinals of the Europa League with a 4-0 victory, winning 7-1 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Unai Emery’s side cruised into a second European semifinal in three years to set up an all-Premier League<\/a> clash with Nottingham Forest<\/a> for a place in the final in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

The Villa boss is an expert in this competition with four titles to his name and few would bet against him adding a fifth.<\/p>\n

Villa brought a healthy 3-1 lead into the home leg of their last-eight clash and any hopes of an Italian revival were quickly snuffed out as the rampant hosts ran in three goals in the first period, starting with a lovely team effort which was rounded off by Ollie Watkins<\/a> tapping in his 100th goal for the club.<\/p>\n

Emi Buendia put Villa 2-0 ahead on the night just 46 seconds after Morgan Rogers<\/a> saw a spot kick saved, but the England<\/a> international made amends for his penalty miss by putting Villa 3-0 up before the break with his first goal since Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

Ezri Konsa’s second goal of the tie wrapped up a convincing win late on.<\/p>\n

Bologna<\/a> were first to threaten, albeit in rather speculative fashion, as Federico Bernardeschi<\/a> let fly from range with a swirling effort which looked like it might catch Emiliano Mart\u00ednez<\/a> out, but the goalkeeper was equal to it.<\/p>\n

The visitors’ lively start was undone by a moment of team brilliance from Villa in the 16th minute.<\/p>\n

Rogers linked up well with Buendia and received the ball back before slipping a pass across to Watkins, who was on hand to tap in his third goal of the tie.<\/p>\n

\"AstonAston Villa players celebrate after scoring a goal against Bologna in the Europa League.<\/p>\n

Rogers was proving a menace, cutting inside before aiming a shot towards the far post which Federico Ravaglia<\/a> tipped behind for a corner.<\/p>\n

The hosts wanted a penalty when Rogers’ goal-bound header hit the raised arm of Martin Vit\u00edk<\/a> and were belatedly given a spot-kick following a VAR review.<\/p>\n

Rogers took responsibility but saw his effort saved down low by Ravaglia.<\/p>\n

That did not stop Villa from doubling their lead less than a minute later, though.<\/p>\n

The Italians were caught napping from a throw-in and Lucas Digne<\/a> threw the ball straight into a free Buendia, who cut inside before dispatching a shot past Ravaglia at the near post.<\/p>\n

The hosts were threatening to make it ugly as they notched a third six minutes before the break.<\/p>\n

Villa carved Bologna apart as John McGinn<\/a> picked out Rogers on the left and he had the space of Villa Park to smash a strike through Ravaglia at the near post.<\/p>\n

The tie was all but over, but Bologna were still eager to give it a go after the break and Martinez was called into action to stop Nikola Moro’s effort from range.<\/p>\n

Villa had their first shot of the half through Digne, who saw his effort saved by Ravaglia, but they still had time to get a fourth when a corner found its way to Konsa to convert in the final minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa blew Bologna away with a trio of first-half goals as they roared into the semifinals of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-588703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}