Aston Villa sealed a 2-1 win over Legia Warszawa in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night, and in turn qualified for the knockout stage of the competition.
Albeit there is still work to do in order to secure top spot in Group E and subsequently a direct path beyond the playoffs round, it was a fourth consecutive win in Europe as we have now moved clear at the top of the standings.
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Goals from Moussa Diaby and Alex Moreno secured the win, and with Villa facing a trip to Zrinjski to end the group stage, it’s hoped that we can maintain our momentum in the competition alongside our excellent domestic form in the Premier League.
Unai Emery’s attention will now switch to Bournemouth on Sunday, and having been able to rotate and rest several key players, we’ll hopefully be in good shape heading into that encounter.
Alex Moreno caps off brilliant comeback display with winner
After a long-awaited comeback, Moreno didn’t disappoint as he not only produced a top performance, but added the winning goal to show why we’ve missed him so much.
The 30-year-old made his first start since May after a lengthy injury layoff, and aside from getting an important 79-minute run out to build his fitness, he immediately showcased his sharpness in both phases of the game, which makes such a big difference for us down our left flank.
While he’ll still face a difficult task in displacing Lucas Digne permanently, given he has been very good this season, this was the type of display that will ensure he makes a very strong case to be our first-choice left-back consistently again as we move closer to seeing his partnership with Jacob Ramsey on our left side restored.
Moussa Diaby makes decisive impact
With only one goal and no assists in his last six Premier League outings and having yet to register either in Europe, Diaby has been quiet in recent weeks.
That’s not to say that he doesn’t make an important contribution with his movement and pace in the final third still, but we do need that consistent decisive touch in front of goal from him too as part of the collective threat.
In turn, it was a relief and boost to see him score in midweek, and it will hopefully spark a run of form now to make us an even more dangerous attacking unit.
Lenglet continues to offer excellent Pau alternative in Europe
While Robin Olsen and Jhon Duran also deserve credit for their respective contributions, Clement Lenglet stood out again at the back with another classy display.
The Frenchman provides a number of similar characteristics to Pau Torres, and is starting to show that he can be an important option in reserve to help us compete on multiple fronts this season on the left side of that centre-half partnership.
His solid defensive play was combined with technical quality and composure in possession to help us build out from the back, and it’s hoped that he can maintain this level of performance moving forward.
Trouble off the pitch will steal headlines
It was bitterly disappointing to read the updates over the course of the night as the travelling Legia fans were ultimately prevented from entering the stadium.
The scenes outside of Villa Park will inevitably make the headlines on Friday morning, and it’s hoped that West Midlands Police get the praise they deserve for preventing the situation from being worse with a danger posed by the Legia fans.
It remains to be seen what repercussions the Polish outfit face from UEFA as a result, but the ugly images seen on Thursday night will hopefully not be repeated as our European journey continues.
Villa building momentum in Europe, still work to do
With four consecutive wins in the Europa Conference League to bounce back from that initial loss away at Legia, it has been an excellent response from Villa to that early adversity.
We’re now building momentum and belief in this competition as we continue to adapt and learn from these experiences, and as Legia have shown us across our two meetings, there is still improvements to be made and a long way to go.
Particularly in the first half, we lacked the control we want to play with, and that presented problems with their quick counter-attacking style. While Villa continue to get results and make progress, we’re hopefully still taking a significant amount on board on how to deal with the style of play in Europe, as it will be imperative in the knockout stage.
