Late Barkley purpose offers Villa gorgeous win

Aston Villa moved as much as third within the Champions League desk as a late deflected Ross Barkley strike earned them a win in an outstanding recreation in Germany.

Villa took an early lead by captain John McGinn however Lois Openda equalised when Emiliano Martinez was caught out of place within the Villa purpose.

Unai Emery launched supersub Jhon Duran at half-time and he took simply seven minutes to make his mark and lash Villa again in entrance.

Duran had one other dominated out for offside and moments after that purpose was overturned Christoph Baumgartner equalised.

The rollercoaster second half then noticed Barkley come off the bench to win it and ship Villa third, 5 factors behind leaders Liverpool.

The highest eight routinely qualify for the subsequent stage and with video games towards Monaco and Celtic to return, Emery’s males are an excellent wager to keep away from the necessity for a play-off spherical of their first foray on this competitors.

Leipzig are out, having misplaced all six of their video games.

Job executed… in the long run 😅 #RBLAVL #UCL pic.twitter.com/PRD1Hi1Q3A

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 10, 2024

Villa led when Matty Money, enjoying in a extra superior place on the fitting, crossed for Ollie Watkins, who nodded down into the trail of McGinn and the skipper made no mistake from shut vary.

That gave the guests confidence and so they had sufficient probabilities within the first quarter-hour to have the sport wrapped up.

Lucas Digne’s cross from the left was begging to be transformed however Watkins couldn’t make contact from shut vary after which Morgan Rogers shot straight at Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

Then Youri Tielemans discovered himself with time and area on the sting of the realm from Watkins’ tee-up however the Belgium worldwide disappointingly dragged huge.

All that good work was undone within the twenty seventh minute, although, as Martinez was left red-faced.

The Argentinian was too informal ready to gather Nicolas Seiwald’s lengthy ball and Openda nipped in to get the ball first and faucet into an empty internet.

Duran was launched on the break and was invited to drive ahead and unleashed a 25-yard shot, earlier than Baumgartner cushioned a far-post volley again throughout purpose and into the nook.

Lucas Digne introduced a save out of Peter Gulacsi after which Openda shot straight at Martinez as either side pushed for a winner.

It was Villa who bought it as Barkley noticed his deflected effort wrong-foot Gulacsi and hit the again of the web.

‘Thrilling to be prime three’

“I assumed general we have been the higher workforce and we might have scored extra,” Villa’s captain John McGinn instructed Amazon Prime. “We handled their issues properly and what we would have liked immediately was substitutes to return on and make a distinction.

“It’s thrilling. It’s nice to be within the prime three.”