March 20, (THEWILL) — Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are through to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals after a 2-0 victory over Lille at Villa Park extended their aggregate margin to 3-0.
The opening half produced little of note, though Amadou Onana went closest just before the interval, heading John McGinn’s corner towards goal only to be denied by goalkeeper, Berke Ozer.
Villa took the lead nine minutes into the second period in opportunistic fashion. Emiliano Martinez gathered Nabil Bentaleb’s free-kick and launched a long ball forward to release Jadon Sancho. The forward cut inside and rolled a pass across to McGinn, who found the bottom-right corner.
Olivier Giroud had a goal ruled out for offside shortly after, before Sancho rattled the woodwork in the 65th minute following a Douglas Luiz pass. Lille continued to press late on, with Martinez also called upon to parry a curling effort from Noah Edjouma.
Leon Bailey wrapped up the contest five minutes from time, tapping in from close range after Ollie Watkins, barely two minutes into his appearance off the bench, unselfishly squared the ball across. Villa have now won seven consecutive matches in the competition.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
