Aston Villa enjoyed an unforgettable night on Wednesday at Villa Park as they secured a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Supersub Jhon Duran emerged from the bench yet again to score a fantastic goal as Villa registered back-to-back wins in this competition.
In a repeat of the Villa’s 1982 European Cup final over the Germans, the Villans rolled back the years with a similar scoreline.
Duran did what he does best, but the audacity he showed in lofting the ball over Bayern’s veteran keeper Manuel Neuer was something extraordinary.
Another player who was simply terrific for Aston Villa was goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. The Argentine goalkeeper is arguably one of the best in the league, and he produced some brilliant saves to keep Villa in the game.
The Daily Mail gave him an 8/10 rating and hailed him as “fantastic” and “true leader”.
The newspaper wrote: “Made a series of fantastic stops when called upon to get Villa over the line – a true leader of this team.”
Yet another impress performance under Unai Emery
Villa earned an impressive 3-0 win in the first game away from home against Young Boys, and they followed it up with another strong performance against Bayern Munich.
To be fair, in a game of this intense magnitude, there weren’t enough chances. Duran came off the bench in the 70th minute, and it took him only nine minutes to get into the act.
Harry Kane came close to equalising for Villa late on, but Martinez produced a magnificent save to keep Bayern at bay.
Villa waited 41 years to enjoy this moment, and there couldn’t have been a better script than this.
While it will be challenging for them to cope with the dual pressure of the Premier League and the Champions League, so far, Emery’s side is enjoying the ride and is creating something special at Villa Park.
