Villa beating Feyenoord in the Europa League has Dave Woodhall looking forward.
If a week is a long time in politics, eight days can be an eternity in football. Last week Villa were in a rut, wondering where the next win would come from and how we were going to fix the problems. Three wins and the problems seem to have fixed themselves.
A trip to Rotterdam was always going to be the highlight of the Europa League group stages and there was a lot to live up to. The team is starting to pick itself; Boubacar Kamara was a welcome return although there was a last-minute setback when the world’s number one suffered a calf injury in the warm-up and the world’s number two was called on to make a late arrival. What is it with this ground and substitute keepers?
Bizot was in the middle of the action from the start, making a confident clearance from an early Feyenoord corner and that added to the confidence of the Villa side. It wasn’t long before the first controversial moment of the match, when Ollie Watkins as brought down on the edge of the area when clean through but VAR declined to upgrade the defender’s yellow card.
We did, though, get one back when a goal was ruled out from a corner due to a foul on Matty Cash. By now Feyenoord were on top and Villa’s defence was looking stretched. We’d been here before as well.
Early in the second half the script went a bit wrong as Evann Guessand hit the post but his shot bounced out of play. There was a penalty shout turned down then not long afterwards Kamara did superbly well to win the ball, shield and lay it off for Emiliano Buendia to score from outside the box.
It was a surprise when Buendia was then substituted but it didn’t take long for his replacement, Donyell Malen, to make an impression. Pau Torres characteristically played out well, Malen’s run could have earned him a goal worthy of the setting but when he was finally stopped the ball fell perfectly for John McGinn. Two-nil and the game was won.
The new Villa were able to see the match out with little fuss and the celebrations could begin again. Given the circumstances Bizot should have been man of the match and he certainly did well, although as ever McGinn had an equally valid claim. Every season seems to be the one where he might have to be replaced but he keeps getting better; when modern-day legends are debated John McGinn deserves to be the first name on the list.
The rest of the team also played their parts. Torres showed that as a ball player there are few defenders better while Kamara continues to be one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. Meanwhile Buendia, after a couple of years when he seemed destined never to even play for the Villa again, has stepped up and begun to look a real danger.
Three wins in a row, six games unbeaten if you don’t count penalties. For a team in decline, with a manager whose best days are behind him, that’s not a bad run.
