Brandon Mechele’s own-goal and Marco Asensio’s penalty handed Aston Villa a 3-1 lead over Membership Brugge within the first leg of their Champions League final 16 tie.
Unai Emery’s aspect heading into the second leg at Villa Park subsequent week all sq. till two objectives in six minutes late on turned the sport on its head.
A lightning begin by Villa noticed them take a third-minute lead, with Tyrone Mings’ headed knockdown from Youri Tielemans’ free-kick completed first time by Leon Bailey.
However their pleasure was short-lived, with a protracted ball excessive gathered by Christos Tzolis, who laid the ball again for Maxim De Cuyper to brush past Emiliano Martinez.
Martinez was then compelled to make a vital save on the half-hour mark, diving low to his right-hand aspect to cease Chemsdine Talbi from giving Brugge the lead.
The hosts continued to pile on the stress and went shut after the break, just for Hans Vanaken to see his header brilliantly cleared off the road by Tyrone Mings.
Emery made three adjustments within the sixty fourth minute to attempt to inject some tempo into Villa’s play, with these substitutions ultimately making the distinction within the closing levels.
With eight minutes remaining, Morgan Rogers delivered a ball into the field that was sliced into his personal web by Mechele, earlier than one other defensive error sealed the win.
After a free contact contained in the field, Tzolis stretched to attempt to win the ball again however clipped substitute Matty Money, with Asensio stepping as much as slot house the spot-kick.
Knowledge Debrief: Tremendous sub Asensio shines as soon as once more
Many had been stunned to see Asensio not within the beginning line-up after scoring each objectives in Villa’s 2-0 win over Cardiff Metropolis within the FA Cup final outing, however the Spaniard continued to show his price for the Villans.
And it has been off the bench the place Asensio has made his mark within the Champions League. He turned the primary participant to achieve double figures for objectives as an alternative within the competitors, with 10 of his 13 strikes coming when being launched into the motion.
Asensio has now scored 5 objectives in his final 4 video games in all competitions for Villa, whereas his aim towards Brugge was his first Champions League aim since April 2023 for Actual Madrid towards Chelsea.
