Sign up for Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for free
Sign up for Miguel K. Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Sign up for Miguel K. Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Aston Villa The table can be forgiven for printing it, framing it, and nailing it to the wall. union who conquered this continent in 1982 Since then he has rarely shown any sign of reaching such heights. Yet a chant echoed in the Holte End when John Duran doubled their lead and Real Madrid canceled out Borussia Dortmund’s advantage at the Bernabeu. They chanted, “We’re on top of the league.” They are, and the league in question is Champions League,
near the villa There’s plenty of evidence of the progress they’ve made under unai emeryYet as the Spaniard approaches the second anniversary of his appointment, the standings are some of the most surprising. Threatened with relegation from the Premier League upon Emery’s arrival, the Second City club now sit first in Europe, at the pinnacle of the 36-team division. It may be for 24 hours but it is an amazing sight.
bologna They were defeated, as Young Boys Bern and Bayern Munich had done before them. Life among the European elite suits Villa: with three wins from three, they have made light of a four-decade absence. John McGinn and Duran were, in their different ways, symbolic scorers, the player who pulled them out of Bayern’s football league crisis.
If Bayern was a spectacular, fundamental occasion at Villa Park, the trip to Bologna was given added importance by the results on the continent. They left Villa in spectacular isolation on nine points: in itself, this should already be enough to clinch a play-off place but Emery has his sights set much higher. A manager who has allowed Villa to dream that an improvement in the second half will bring a reward. Spaghetti Junction 2 Spaghetti Bolognese 0.
Of course, an element of luck was required to break the deadlock. Villa have been set-piece specialists. Even if his opener wasn’t exactly what Austin McPhee had planned, it still proved effective. McGinn’s free kick was curved and dangerous but was a cross. Instead, it fired past a number of bodies in the box and into the net past defiant goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.
The Scot was ruled out of the match against Bayern due to injury. Captaining Villa at home in the Champions League for the first time, a player who joined them in the Championship, scoring the winner in the play-off final that restored them to the top flight, his personal journey comes to an end.
The recent arrival ensured victory. Duran has five goals as a substitute this season. His only previous start had come against Wycombe Wanderers. But Emery turned around and was rewarded, even if Duran, often explosive after coming on, felt devastated when he left this time.
But when Bologna were awkwardly slow to stop Morgan Rodgers, they allowed him to cross and allow Duran to slide and score. It was his final touch, Ollie Watkins was waiting for him to arrive. The timing may have been lucky for Villa. The goal did not calm the scorer. When Duran went off he punched a chair in frustration but the Bayern destroyer scored his second goal of the Champions League. His contributions were more mixed: Supersub Supreme felt less dynamic as a starter but still finished with a goal.
Villa showed urgency in the first half, even if the accuracy was not required. Skorupski denied eventual scorers Duran and McGinn with a header and shot respectively. On the stroke of half-time Rodgers had two chances in as many minutes, one shot fractionally wide, the other very close to the goalkeeper. Then Emery intervened: the Duran impact wasn’t all it took this time, but the arrival of Ross Barkley at the break helped Villa regain dominance.
Bologna’s draw experts had spent the first half suggesting they could share the points again. Instead, they were overwhelmed in the second, clinging to a second consecutive Champions League upset in England, clinging to a solitary win under new manager Vincenzo Italiano.
He has still not scored in the competition; Not since their solitary entry into the European Cup in the 1960s. They threatened when Emi Martínez followed up her heroics against Bayern Munich with another fine save in front of the Holte End, denying Thijs Delinga when the summer signing was on goal. It gets the approval of possibly one of Italy’s greatest goalkeepers: an unlikely but enthusiastic Villa fan watching Gianluca Pagliuca.
Bologna could reflect on the moment, minutes before McGinn scored, when Stefan Posh sent a shot just wide, while Martínez was beaten in the final minutes when captain Sam Beukema’s header went wide of the post. Was hit back. But Villa have still not lost in the European Cup since Michel Platini scored for Juventus in 1983. Villa were then champions of Europe. And now, quite literally, Villa are top of the Champions League.