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When Unai Emery accepted the challenge of reviving Aston Villa at a time when the club was fretting about relegation to the Championship, he voiced his desire to return to European competition.
It was punchy, part of a grand plan and, for supporters, a particularly exciting soundbite, but back then the prospect of a Champions League quarter-final date with Paris Saint-Germain, one of Emery’s former clubs, felt fanciful. The Villa manager has unequivocally delivered on his wish. The Champions League furniture: the oversized badges, the giant tifos and 3D signage will get at least another outing this season. “Paris away, olé olé,” a delirious Holte End sang.
The PSG loanee Marco Asensio continued his fine goalscoring run to accelerate clear of Club Brugge on the night, his sixth and seventh goals for the club bookending a routine victory after the visitors were reduced to 10 men early in the first half. Asensio, a half-time arrival, opened the scoring, Ian Maatsen doubled Villa’s lead and then Asensio added another just past the hour. By that point Prince William had been throwing his arms in the air in both frustration and jubilation.
Emery had been at pains to insist coming into this second leg with a two-goal advantage was not cause for celebration. He referenced Brugge’s impressive 3-1 playoff win at Atalanta last month after Asensio’s goal sealed victory in Belgium by the same scoreline and made it plain Villa had to anticipate another big performance from their opponents. “The biggest mistake we can make is thinking that the round was decided one week ago,” he said, wary of how these things can bite. This was the third meeting between these sides in five months, so both teams knew what to expect. The last time Villa hosted Belgian opposition was in April 1982, Tony Morley’s semi-final winner enough to down Anderlecht en route to lifting the trophy.
Brugge began promisingly, Maxim De Cuyper taking on a first-time shot and Hans Vanaken dropping a header off target. But, 16 minutes in, it became clear Emery may as well have been bluffing when he said Villa were prepared for extra time and penalties.
Emi Martínez, having spent a few seconds assessing the picture before his eyes, nudged the ball half a yard, ready to pull the trigger. He spied Marcus Rashford’s willingness to dart behind the Brugge right-back Kyriani Sabbe and pinged a long pass downfield.
The ball bounced close to the opposition 18-yard box and the defender was in trouble, upending Rashford, who gamely zoomed on to the ball, Simon Mignolet’s goal in his sights. Rashford curled into a heap on the turf and the referee, Daniel Siebert, looked to his assistant for help before pulling out a red card for Sabbe, who tellingly had no complaints. At least it was a short walk down the tunnel. From the subsequent free-kick, Youri Tielemans worked Mignolet after zipping a shot through a hole in the wall.
Villa were now in total control of the tie. Emery, choreographing his players on the sidelines, had gestured for calm with Villa on the back foot early on but had no such concerns as Villa sought to make the most of their advantage. Ollie Watkins went through on goal after latching on to a pass fired through midfield but the Brugge centre-back Joel Ordóñez shunted his body across the Villa striker and extinguished the danger. Rashford skittled a shot against the side netting approaching half-time. Regardless of Emery’s warning, it was hard to see how things might unravel for Villa from a position of such power.
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Emery’s half-time reshuffle appeared to acknowledge as much, with Asensio and Leon Bailey replacing Boubacar Kamara and Watkins, two Villa pillars, and within five minutes the substitutes combined to kill the tie. By that point an off-balance Tyrone Mings had stung the palms of Mignolet. Bailey then cleverly dinked a pass into the box and Asensio, without even a glance at goal, swivelled and wellied a shot into the roof of the net. Asensio would have grabbed his second goal earlier but hit a post after nonchalantly bringing Tielemans’s pass under his spell. Maatsen doubled Villa’s lead before the hour, firing home after good work from Morgan Rogers and Bailey, before Asensio made it three. Rashford was the catalyst this time, latching on to Rogers’s cute pass before pulling the ball back for Asensio to convert inside the six-yard box.
Villa could withdraw Mings and Rogers midway through the second half and, with 20 minutes to play, Axel Disasi entered in place of Matty Cash. But the game was long since done. Emery appeared unmoved. Maybe because he expected Villa to progress. Or perhaps he was already thinking about his return to Parc des Princes.
