Aston Villa 2 Bologna: Villa make it three from three in Champions League

For 24 hours at least, Unai Emery’s men sit top of Europe’s elite league, the only team to have so far recorded a perfect three wins from three matches.

With the top eight going through automatically to the last-16, Villa have put themselves in a prime position with five games of the league phase yet to play. They may already have enough points to reach the play-off round which precedes it.

This 2-0 win over Bologna carried none of the emotion of the victory over Bayern Munich in the most recent game, or even the opening night win over Young Boys.

Instead, Villa had the look of a team increasingly at home in the competition, gradually wearing down their Italian opponents until two goals in the space of nine second half minutes from John McGinn and Jhon Duran earned the victory.

McGinn and Duran were both drafted into a starting XI which saw four changes from Saturday’s 3-1 win at Fulham, with Ian Maatsen and Ezri Konsa also in a team which demonstrated Villa’s increasing strength in depth. Midfielder Boubacar Kamara made his return from injury after a seven month absence late in the second half, while Tyrone Mings featured in a matchday squad for the first time since suffering a serious knee injury in August, 2023.

Bologna had won just one of their opening eight Serie A matches, blowing a two-goal lead late on to draw at Genoa in their most recent game. Their head coach, Vincenzo Italiano, said his team wanted to play “strongly” for those people whose lives had been impacted by the heavy floods which hit Italy in recent days.

Whereas the atmosphere ahead of the Bayern game had almost felt like a derby fixture, with the stands already packed more than 20 minutes before kick-off, this build-up felt far more sedate.

It was loud at start, though and despite all the valid complaints over ticket prices, the stadium was near enough full.

Bologna began brightly. Swiss forward Dan Ndoye was back from injury and he caused early problems for Villa, setting up early chances for Kacper Urbanksi and Thijs Dallinga, the second of which required a sharp save from Emi Martinez.

Visiting boss Italiano had spoken of Villa’s strength from set pieces prior to the game and from the hosts’ fifth corner Duran brought the first save of the night from Lukasz Skorupski with a glancing header.

The Bologna goalkeeper needed even sharper reflexes soon after to keep out McGinn’s curling effort from Maatsen, with the latter becoming an increasing influence.

Things just weren’t falling for Villa in the box. A Maatsen cross looped up and over three players before Youri Tielemans saw a powerful drive blocked.

In first half stoppage time, Villa fashioned their best chance. Moments after pulling a shot just wide from the edge of the box, Rogers was sent racing through the middle but his right-footed effort was too close to Skorupski, who spread himself to save.

Within three minutes of the restart, Bailey should have given the keeper no chance when Konsa’s knock down fell for him in the box but he dragged the effort wide.

Bologna then carved out a good chance of their own but Stefan Posch dragged horribly wide when meeting the ball on the edge of the box.

Having saved his team on several occasions, Skorupski then had a moment to forget as the deadlock was finally broken. Remo Freuler brought down Konsa on the right and McGinn’s inswinging delivery was missed by everyone including the keeper before ending up in the corner of the net.

Bologna weren’t happy as they felt play should have been halted for an earlier challenge by Konsa on Urbanksi, while there was also a VAR check for handball.

There could be no complaints, however, about Villa’s second. Carlos picked out the run of Rogers with a lofted high ball and the latter swung in a cross for Duran to hook home having gotten front of Jhon Lucini.

It was Duran’s last action of the night as he was replaced by Watkins and initially he was not happy, hitting the back of the dugout in frustration. One can only wonder what might have happened had he been substituted before scoring.

Duran would later leave the field smiling, holding the man-of-the-match trophy and high-fiving young fans, after visiting skipper Sam Beukema almost became the first player to score against Villa in the Champions League but thundered his close range header against the post.

For Villa, in this competition, nothing can apparently go wrong right now.

Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Maatsen, Onana (Barkley HT), Tielemans (Kamara 78), Bailey (Philogene 66), Rogers, McGinn (Ramsey 66), Duran (Watkins 66) Subs not used: Cash, Mings, Buendia, Digne, Nedeljkovic, Bogarde, Olsen (gk).

Bologna (4-3-3): Skorupski, Posch, Buekema, Lucumi, Lykogiannis, Fabbian, Freuler, Urbanski (Moro 66), Orsolini (Odgaard HT), Dallinga (Castro 66), Ndoye (Iling-Junior 78) Subs not used: Holm, Casale, Corazza, Pobega, Miranda, Ravaglia (gk), Bagnolini (gk).