April 03, (THEWILL) – Marcus Rashford scored his first English Premier League goal for Aston Villa in their 3-0 triumph against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium. The victory bolstered Villa’s UEFA Champions League aspirations whilst dealing a blow to Brighton’s similar ambitions.
The Manchester United loanee broke the deadlock 51 minutes into the contest, finishing from Morgan Rogers’ long ball. Brighton thought they had equalised through Simon Adingra, but the goal was disallowed following a VAR review that detected a handball by Kaoru Mitoma in the build-up.
Marco Asensio extended Villa’s advantage with 12 minutes remaining, side-footing into the bottom corner from Matty Cash’s cutback. The match featured numerous talking points, including penalty appeals from both sides that were dismissed by referee Stuart Attwell.
Villa completed the scoring deep into stoppage time when Donyell Malen fired an accurate shot into the bottom-left corner, registering his first goal since joining the club. The comprehensive win moves Villa into seventh position in the league table, leapfrogging their opponents who drop to eighth.
Earlier in the match, Brighton had come close to opening the scoring when Yasin Ayari struck the post with an impressive free-kick shortly before half-time. Villa had also threatened through Cash, whose half-volley fizzed past the post after Rashford had missed a good opportunity.
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.
