A late brace secured Aston Villa a crucial advantage heading into the second leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 clash against Club Brugge, whom they overcame 3-1 in Belgium—this marked just their third victory from 13 away fixtures.
The Villans had previously left empty-handed from this ground, failing to score in a league defeat back in November, but they silenced the home crowd in under three minutes this time around.
Tyrone Mings redeemed himself after a peculiar mistake in that prior 1-0 defeat, heading Youri Tielemans’ free kick back into play, where Leon Bailey skilfully placed a half-volley into the bottom-left corner.
Villa instantly sought a second goal, but the team, with just one clean sheet in their last 15 competitive away matches, couldn’t hold out for long. Christos Tzolis latched onto a long ball on the left, directing it inside to Maxim De Cuyper, who coolly dispatched it into the far corner.
This sparked life into the home support, with Chemsdine Talbi soon testing Emiliano MartÃnez, who made a fine reflex save from close range.
Brugge maintained their pressure, dominating possession and territory, but couldn’t find a second before the break. They carried this momentum into the second half, but besides a long-range effort from Raphael Onyedika that was calmly saved by MartÃnez, there was little noteworthy action.
A significant quadruple substitution stirred things up, and excitement followed on both ends. Marco Asensio got one on target for the visitors, while Hans Vanaken saw his header superbly cleared off the line by Mings.
Tzolis then shot over after being set up by Vanaken, but things took a turn for the worse for the home team. A brilliant cross from Morgan Rogers almost found Ollie Watkins, but Brandon Mechele intervened with an unfortunate own goal.
In the dying minutes, Tzolis’ challenge on Matty Cash inside the box resulted in a penalty for Villa, which Asensio blasted home convincingly—marking his fifth goal in four appearances for the club in claret and blue.
With Villa having lost just one of their last 22 competitive home matches—including all four league phase games—they’ll be optimistic about advancing to meet either Liverpool or Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals.
On the other hand, Brugge will be looking to duplicate their impressive 3-1 away victory over Atalanta when they head to Birmingham next week.
Compiled by SportArena.com.au.
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