Aston Villa beat Lille 2-0 with objectives from John McGinn and Leon Bailey, advancing to the Europa League quarter-finals and successful 3-0 on mixture.
Unai Emery’s facet, who had already led from the primary leg on the Stade Pierre Mauroy, secured their place within the final eight with seven consecutive wins.
Each side struggled to create clear possibilities within the first half, however Amadou Onana’s header from McGinn’s nook was saved by Berk Ozer simply earlier than half-time.
Nevertheless, the second half got here to life 9 minutes after the restart when Nabil Bentaleb’s curling free kick from the sting of the field hit Emiliano Martinez’s glove.
Simply 15 seconds later, the ball went into the alternative internet. Martinez fired an enormous punt ahead, bringing Jadon Sancho into the sport, and the Villa ahead reduce inside earlier than establishing McGinn, who fired a shot into the underside proper nook.
Olivier Giroud responded nearly instantly, however his fierce end was dominated out for offside, and shortly after substitute Ollie Watkins fired a shot simply extensive of the left publish.
Villa had an opportunity to equalize within the sixty fifth minute when Douglas Ruiz introduced on Sancho, however when Sancho tried to take a stable shot, his shot hit the picket body.
However regardless of late stress from Lille, with Martinez parrying Noah Ejuma’s curling shot, Villa sealed the lead with 5 minutes left when Watkins unselfishly slotted the ball residence simply 99 seconds into the sport, earlier than Bailey slotted it into an empty internet.
See you within the quarterfinals! #UEL pic.twitter.com/r5RsP6gaRr
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) March 19, 2026
Knowledge Report: Magic McGuinn Helps Emery Mastermind One other European Tour
Emery is considered a grasp of the Europa League, having now reached the quarter-finals for the eighth time. No different supervisor has ever completed this greater than 5 instances.
And the Spaniard has additionally helped Villa attain the quarter-finals of Europe’s main competitions for the third consecutive season, the identical variety of instances the membership have reached at the least this spherical within the earlier 11 comparable campaigns.
Nevertheless, they have been aided by McGinn’s expertise as he equaled Peter Withe because the membership’s high goalscorer for Villa in a significant European competitors, his ninth aim.
Villa needed to wait a very long time to make a breakthrough, however they deserved the win right here. They completed with a complete anticipated objectives (xG) of 1.8 from eight makes an attempt, in comparison with Lille’s 0.34 with the identical variety of pictures as their opponents.
