Aston Villa’s 9/10 star was as good as Watkins & McGinn vs Lille
After breezing past Ajax with ease in the previous round, Aston Villa welcomed Ligue 1 side Lille to Villa Park on Thursday night.
Unai Emery’s side set out with one mission in mind: to go to France with a lead, and they certainly achieved that, defeating the visitors 2-1.
The Villans could not have gotten off to a better start, opening the scoring in the 13th minute, and just before the hour mark, they had a two-goal advantage.
It looked set to be the perfect night, however, a late Lille goal did spoil the party slightly, making it all to play for in the second leg.
But in truth, the outcome could have been much worse if it weren’t for one star who was even better than John McGinn and Ollie Watkins.
McGinn and Watkins’ performances vs Lille
As usual, Villa lined up in the Spaniard’s 4-4-1-1 formation, with the attack being led by none other than Watkins, with the support of McGinn just behind him.
Both players combined brilliantly for the first goal of the game, with the England attacker meeting the Scot’s inch-perfect corner kick to power the ball home via his head, scoring his 25th goal of the campaign.
After the break, Villa’s second goal once again heavily involved McGinn, as the provider turned goal-scorer, placing the ball into the bottom corner from outside the box with a controlled first-time finish.
To add further context to just how influential the dangerous duo were on the night, the number 11 was handed an 8/10 match rating by Birmingham World, while the 29-year-old was given an impressive 9/10, but they still weren’t the most important on the field.
Emi Martinez statistics against Lille
The Villa faithful may already believe that Emiliano Martinez is the best goalkeeper in the world, hence their common chant, but he truly showed his quality yesterday.
The Argentine is an extremely important player to Emery’s side, not just because of his ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net but also because of his elite mentality, which will prove to be vital throughout the rest of the tournament.
In Birmingham World’s player ratings article, Martinez was handed a joint-highest 9/10 rating, stating, “absolutely outstanding to get his team out of trouble so often,” and although he was eventually unable to keep a clean sheet, the World Cup winner pulled off similar heroics to the ones he displayed in Qatar against France, coming out on top in crucial moments.
Throughout the tie, Martinez looked confident, comfortable, and relaxed, as shown by his pass accuracy of 90% and his 40 touches in the table below, which enabled Villa to not give possession away cheaply.
Saves
6
Saves inside the box
6
Goals prevented
1.67
High claims
2
Pass accuracy
90%
Touches
40
However, it's clear that it was his shot-stopping ability that deservedly got him the plaudits, as he made six saves in the tie, all of them from attempts inside the penalty area.
Most impressively, the 31-year-old had a goal prevented of 1.67, which is a brilliant indicator of just how good the chances were that he was denying, and shows that Villa could have drawn or lost the game without his heroics.
Overall, without Martinez in between the sticks, there’s no way that Villa would be going to Lille with the advantage, and although the goal-scorers tend to take the headlines, the Villa fanbase will certainly know who their real hero was with his colossal display in goal.