Argentina’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez’s Aston Villa started their Champions League campaign with an impressive win. Unai Emery’s team made a great return to European football with a 3-0 win over Swiss club Young Boys. For the first time since 1983, the Villains participated in Europe’s top competition.
Unai Emery’s side are back on the European stage after finishing fourth in the Premier League last season. The match was played at Stadion Wangdorf in Switzerland on Tuesday (September 17), where there were some concerns about the artificial pitch. But while the Young Boys applied some early pressure, Villa soon settled and dominated the match.
Villa’s first goal came from a great set piece midway through the first half. John McGinn took a short corner and fed the ball to Youri Tielemans, who controlled it with a perfect shot to score their first Champions League goal for Villa. Jacob Ramsey then took advantage of a defensive error to score the second goal. Amadou Onana scored the third goal late in the match to seal Villa’s victory.
Villa could have had more goals, but two goals from Ollie Watkins and substitute John Duran were ruled out for offside. Still, the win leaves Villa well-prepared to face the challenges of a tough group, featuring opponents such as Juventus, Bayern Munich and Celtic.
After reaching the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League last year, Villa are now ready to make their appearance in the Champions League. After a dramatic 3-2 comeback win against Everton, they now aim to reach the knockout stages.
Meanwhile, in another match that started at the same time, the Italian giant Juventus beat the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven by 3-1.
