UEL:Ollie’s brace brings Emery closer to another title

It’s rare when any football coach has a number of European titles won, no matter the competition. Its so hard to win any title when you are competing against other European clubs and yet some coaches, like Unai Emery, have managed to do it multiple times, and they are not gonna be stopped any time soon. Everybody knows that former Arsenal boss has already won four Europa League titles but after the first leg of the quarterfinals, he is even closer to yet another one. His Aston Villa managed to ‘destroy’ the Bologna’s fans joy and optimism on Thursday night. The Rossoblu fans created a wonderful atmosphere at the Renato Dall’Ara stadium. The famous venue was painted in two colors, with people arranged alternately in red and blue shirts throughout the entire stadium, but Aston Villa decided to showcase Premier League intensity in full force. Aston Villa won 3–1 (1–0), but Bologna was generally followed by a lot of misfortune.

At 0–0 in the 26th minute, Vincenzo Italiano’s team had an own goal by Ezri Konsa disallowed, simply because after a lengthy VAR review it was determined that there had been a millimeter offside beforehand. Then Villa’s quality came to the surface. After goals from Ezri Konsa in the 44th minute and Ollie Watkins in the 51st, the scoreboard read 0–2. A glimmer of hope for Bologna was brought back by Jonathan Rowe with a fine strike in the 90th minute, but a cold shower followed as Ollie Watkins scored his second goal in the 90+4th minute. A two-goal deficit at Villa Park is something even stronger teams than Bologna would struggle to overturn. Only a miracle can save the Italians.

EUROPA LEAGUE, QUARTERFINALS (First leg)

Wednesday

Braga - Betis 1:1 (1:0)

/Grillitsch 5 - Hernandes 61(p)/

Thursday

Porto - Nottingham Forest 1:1 (1:1)

/Gomes 11 - Fernandes 13(og)/

Bologna - Aston Villa 1:3 (0:1)

/Rowe 90 - Konsa 44, Watkins 52, 90+4/

Freiburg - Celta 3:0 (2:0)

/Grifo 10, Beste 32, Ginter 78/