Aston Villa overcame RB Leipzig in a thrilling 3-2 win on Tuesday night as we took an important step towards qualifying for the knockout phase of the Champions League.
After back-to-back wins in the Premier League, Villa’s good form continued as we got back to winning ways in Europe, and although there are clear areas of improvement still, namely our defensive work, it’s been a positive week as we have put a poor run behind us.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs RB Leipzig: Barkley seals thrilling win
Goals from John McGinn, Jhon Duran and Ross Barkley sealed the three points in midweek as we twice surrendered a lead before eventually coming out on top, and there was naturally a lot of happy Villa players based on the result.
Importantly though, there was a balance in their assessment of the game, from our skipper conceding that we conceded two disappointing goals, to Youri Tielemans managing expectations and issuing a warning that we can’t get carried away despite our excellent start in the Champions League.
Villa now have 13 points from our opening six games in the competition, which in turn leaves us in third place in the standings currently. That puts us in a great position to advance, and not only that, but to go through directly to the knockout phase rather than having to go through a playoff round.
In turn, there’s a lot to be pleased with, but the job ultimately isn’t yet finished, with a trip to Monaco and a visit from Celtic rounding out our league phase, and we’ll need to get results from those two outings to be sure of achieving our objective.
“It was disappointing losing the offside goal,” McGinn told Amazon Prime, as quoted by BBC Sport. “I think the two goals we conceded were disappointing from our point of view. I thought overall we were the better team and we could have scored more.
“We dealt with their problems well and what we needed today was substitutes to come on and make a difference. It is exciting. We had some disappointing results off the great start and it is great to be in the top three. We have that Monaco game and then a nice one against Celtic.”
Ross Barkley: “That’s the role of the lads on the bench – to try and make a difference. Jhon Duran made a difference and I am happy to score the winner. They all count.”
On Duran:Â “As you have seen he comes off the bench and causes chaos and scores goals. We have got two top strikers fighting to start.”
Jhon Duran: “We worked hard as a team, and that is my job to score. The main thing was the win and the three points away from home. I am just happy to be here and love the competition with Ollie Watkins. When it is my turn hopefully I can step up and help the team.
“We’re so happy to be where we are and we are almost through so we are delighted about that.”
On turning 21 on Friday:Â “I am definitely not going out to celebrate my birthday because my aim is to score to celebrate on Saturday to celebrate.”
Youri Tielemans: “We worked really hard to get where we are now and to come here and win is not an easy task to do. We played for each other and deserved the win.
“Leipzig are a very good team and we knew we had to pay attention on their transition. I thought we had some really good spells on the ball and in the end we got the win which is really important.
“We don’t need to get carried away now. We know how tough it is going to be. We need to enjoy this win but not get carried away.”
As noted above, while the squad should certainly enjoy this victory and what we’ve done in Europe thus far, the message from Tielemans is an important one, as it balances our excitement with focus with the likely need to secure another positive result when the Champions League resumes next year.
In the meantime, our attention switches back to the Premier League this weekend for another difficult away day at Nottingham Forest, and having ended our barren run of eight games without a win across all competitions by stringing three together over the past week or so, it’s hoped that we can continue this much-improved run going into the Christmas schedule to end the year on a high.
