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Ollie Watkins kickstarted Aston Villa’s near-perfect evening as his 100th goal for the club enabled Unai Emery’s side to cruise into a semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
The England striker, looking to earn a late recall into Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad, tapped home in the 16th minute before goals from Emiliano Buendía and Morgan Rogers followed the latter’s spurned penalty. Ezri Konsa, who had set this emphatic aggregate victory in motion with the first goal in the first leg last week, rounded off the triumph by volleying home late on after Tammy Abraham headed on a corner.
Emery, seeking to win this competition as a manager for the fifth time, could barely have asked for a more forgiving quarter-final. Villa can now return to their other bid for Champions League qualification, welcoming Sunderland here in the Premier League on Sunday, barely having broken sweat.
Already 3-1 to the good from the first leg, Emery named an unchanged Villa lineup for successive European games for the first time in his reign. Unbeaten in Europe when John McGinn and Youri Tielemans have both been in the starting XI, Villa were on the front foot from the off.
Once the smoke from the pre-match flares had dispersed, it became clear Villa were not intent on sitting on their advantage. Starting up front alongside Watkins in a compact 4-4-2 formation, Rogers dropped deep to drive at the Italians’ defence before turning to leave the ball for Tielemans. When it landed at Buendía’s feet just outside the area, his pass in behind was perfectly weighted for Rogers’s surging run and a low, first-time cross along the six-yard line eluded goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia to leave Watkins with surely the simplest of his 13 goals this season.
That was also his fifth goal in seven games, and a club record 10th in Europe for Villa, as he continues to show his return towards top form since his exclusion from the England squad. If there is a better all-round striker available to Tuchel as Harry Kane’s deputy, Watkins would like to hear the conversation.
Villa were so comfortable, with Rogers clearly in the mood. After his shot was tipped behind in spectacular fashion, it was his header, from Lucas Digne’s cross, that deflected on to Martin Vitík’s arm. Villa players appealed for a penalty much less than their fans behind the goal but, once José Mariá Sánchez had been sent to watch TV by the video assistant referee, the outcome was inevitable. What was less predictable, as McGinn handed the ball over to Rogers, without a goal since early February, was that Ravaglia would dive to his right to save.
There had been a three-minute delay from the handball till the penalty but, after Rogers’ spurned effort, it took only one m ore minute for Villa to make amends. From Digne’s ensuing throw-in over Juan Miranda’s head, Buendía was able to twinkle-toe his way in from the byline and crash his shot inside the near post.
To be beaten in that area once can be deemed a misfortune but to allow a shot inside your near post twice looks like carelessness. So when McGinn, receiving Watkins’ pass, fed the ball out wide to Rogers, Ravaglia should really not have allowed the shot to beat him again. But he did, and the Villa faithful were not complaining.
With five players one yellow card away from missing the semi-final first leg, and with a top-five place in the Premier League to consolidate, the opportunity was there for Villa to make substitutions early, though Emery stayed with his starting XI till midway through the second half.
Villa have been imperious at home in continental combat, winning 15 of their previous 17 major European matches here, and seem to be finding their mojo again at just the right time. Having revealed a loss of “only” £9.5m in their accounts for the year ending June 2025 this week, the prospect of a swift return to the Champions League next season comes at a timely juncture. That surely represents their best chance of retaining the services of the likes of Rogers.
Emery may have a Midas touch in this competition, but it is the idea of lifting the bigger urn, of winning the Champions League, that underpins his ambition. “All of you fully deserve to have your team showing up when the best teams are still competing,” he wrote in his programme notes.
On this evidence, he was not referring to Bologna, even if those words were aimed at staving off any fear of complacency. The nearest Villa came to this in the opening hour was when Emiliano Martínez scooped the ball over the head of Santiago Castro as the forward made to press the goalkeeper early in the second half.
That nearly backfired when Castro regained possession and Riccardo Orsolini was allowed to drill in a low cross that caused some momentary consternation, but in the main Villa Park echoed with the sounds of “Unai Emery’s claret and blue army” and “Holte Enders in the Sky” as the second half was played out to a celebratory rhythm.
