Aston Villa made a high-quality return to Europe’s elite as they started their Champions League marketing campaign with an completed 3-0 victory over Swiss membership Younger Boys on Tuesday.
Villa, European Cup winners in 1982 and taking part in in UEFA’s premier membership competitors for the primary time since 1983, needed to survive some early stress however have been good worth for his or her victory as soon as they made the breakthrough.
Youri Tielemans fired Villa in entrance within the twenty seventh minute after being picked out by John McGinn’s deep cross, and Unai Emery’s males by no means appeared again from there.
They doubled their benefit 11 minutes later, Mohamed Ali Camara’s horrible again cross promoting Younger Boys goalkeeper David von Ballmoos quick and permitting Jacob Ramsey to faucet residence.
The guests had targets by Ollie Watkins and substitute Jhon Duran disallowed for handball both facet of half-time, however Amadou Onana put the icing on the cake 4 minutes from time, drilling an outstanding effort into the bottom-left nook from 25 yards out.
The one concern for the guests was the sight of star ahead Watkins receiving remedy on his ankle following his Sixtieth-minute withdrawal, simply 4 days out from a Premier League derby in opposition to Midlands rivals Wolves.
Villa will face sterner Champions League checks within the coming months, with Bayern Munich visiting Villa Park on matchday two and Juventus, RB Leipzig and Monaco additionally mendacity in wait.
A dominant show from Aston Villa of their UEFA Champions League debut, due to targets from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana.#UCL pic.twitter.com/CAgOixIrYe
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) September 17, 2024
Information Debrief: Spectacular introduction for Rogers
Tielemans, Ramsey and Onana could have scored the targets, however Villa’s star of the present was Morgan Rogers, who laid on 4 possibilities for his team-mates.
Not solely was that essentially the most of any participant on the pitch, forward of Watkins and Younger Boys ahead Filip Ugrinic (three every), however additionally it is essentially the most by any Englishman on their Champions League debut since Marc Albrighton for Leicester Metropolis in 2016 (4 versus Membership Brugge).
Villa turned the eleventh completely different English facet to play within the Champions League because it was rebranded in 1992, however simply the fourth to win their first match.
Manchester United (4-2 versus IFK Goteborg in 1994), Newcastle United (3-2 in opposition to Barcelona in 1997) and Leicester (3-0 versus Brugge in 2016) additionally did so.