Villa close to Champions League progression
RB Leipzig 2 - 3 Aston Villa
Aston Villa edged closer to securing a spot in the Champions League knockout stages with a dramatic late win over winless RB Leipzig, despite being pegged back twice.
Ross Barkley's deflected effort sealed the victory in the dying minutes after goals from Lois Openda and Christoph Baumgartner had cancelled out strikes from John McGinn and Jhon Duran.
The Premier League side made a flying start, taking the lead inside three minutes. Ollie Watkins expertly nodded down Matty Cash's cross, setting up McGinn to smash home from close range. Watkins came close to doubling the lead soon after, narrowly missing Lucas Digne's low cross across the box.
However, Leipzig capitalised on a rare mistake by Emiliano Martinez. The Villa goalkeeper misjudged a long ball, allowing Openda to pounce and slot into an empty net.
Villa thought they had restored their lead just before half-time when Watkins found the net, but the goal was ruled out for offside. The England forward was substituted at the break, with Jhon Duran coming on and making an instant impact. The Colombian struck a thunderous 25-yard effort to restore Villa's advantage.
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Duran came close to a second, but his goal was also ruled offside. Leipzig responded again, with Baumgartner’s sublime cushioned volley from Openda's cross levelling the match once more.
Leipzig had a golden chance to take the lead late on, but Openda fired straight at Martinez after intercepting a wayward pass from Pau Torres.
Just as the match seemed destined for a draw, Barkley's speculative shot took a decisive deflection off Lukas Klostermann, wrong-footing goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi to clinch all three points for Villa.
The victory leaves Unai Emery’s side third in the group standings with 13 points from six games, putting them in a strong position to secure a top-eight finish and direct qualification to the last 16.
Villa’s next fixtures in the league phase will see them visit Monaco on 21 January before hosting Celtic at Villa Park on 29 January.
Aston Villa fans enjoyed themselves in Germany
Outside the ground on a memorable European away trip for Aston Villa fans. eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com/p/champions-...
— European Super Football (@superfootball.bsky.social) 11 December 2024 at 18:58
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Daniel was another Aston Villa fan who travelled to Leipzig. He told usL "That was a great away performance, and we could have scored even more goals. Two defensive mistakes gifted them their goals. Overall, it was a fantastic result, highlighted by a great goal from Duran. Our midfield was also solid for most of the game."
Phil added: "The performance was excellent and wasn't diminished by those two preventable goals. We deserved to win by a larger margin and played at a high tempo throughout, similar to last season."
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