Aston Villa made a fine return to Europe’s elite as they began their Champions League campaign with an accomplished 3-0 victory over Swiss club Young Boys on Tuesday.
Villa, European Cup winners in 1982 and playing in UEFA’s premier club competition for the first time since 1983, had to survive some early pressure but were good value for their victory once they made the breakthrough.
Youri Tielemans fired Villa in front in the 27th minute after being picked out by John McGinn’s deep cross, and Unai Emery’s men never looked back from there.
They doubled their advantage 11 minutes later, Mohamed Ali Camara’s terrible back pass selling Young Boys goalkeeper David von Ballmoos short and allowing Jacob Ramsey to tap home.
The visitors had goals by Ollie Watkins and substitute Jhon Duran disallowed for handball either side of half-time, but Amadou Onana put the icing on the cake four minutes from time, drilling a superb effort into the bottom-left corner from 25 yards out.
The one concern for the visitors was the sight of star forward Watkins receiving treatment on his ankle following his 60th-minute withdrawal, just four days out from a Premier League derby against Midlands rivals Wolves.
Villa will face sterner Champions League tests in the coming months, with Bayern Munich visiting Villa Park on matchday two and Juventus, RB Leipzig and Monaco also lying in wait.
A dominant display from Aston Villa in their UEFA Champions League debut, thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana.#UCL pic.twitter.com/CAgOixIrYe
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) September 17, 2024
Data Debrief: Impressive introduction for Rogers
Tielemans, Ramsey and Onana may have scored the goals, but Villa’s star of the show was Morgan Rogers, who laid on four chances for his team-mates.
Not only was that the most of any player on the pitch, ahead of Watkins and Young Boys forward Filip Ugrinic (three each), but it is also the most by any Englishman on their Champions League debut since Marc Albrighton for Leicester City in 2016 (four versus Club Brugge).
Villa became the 11th different English side to play in the Champions League since it was rebranded in 1992, but just the fourth to win their first match.
Manchester United (4-2 versus IFK Goteborg in 1994), Newcastle United (3-2 against Barcelona in 1997) and Leicester (3-0 versus Brugge in 2016) also did so.
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