Aston Villa - 2 Lille - 1 Post match chit chat

[tomd2103]

Definitely take a win at this stage, but switched off and conceded a sloppy goal again though.  We've been doing it all season and it hasn't really mattered in league games we've won, but it could come back to bite us in this tie.

That said, I didn't think they were great defensively, especially defending set pieces so I fancy us to score over there.

[jon collett]

If we can get Cash back and play Konsa in the middle we might be ok.

[TonyD]

Great result to be 2.1 up going into next week. 
Emi motm.  We would have lost the game badly without him. 
Konsa has to start in the middle.  Don’t care who plays RB.

Emery is the euro cups master.  Let’s see what he does next week.

[Clampy]

Fairly satisfied with the result, they looked a decent side. We could have conceded more and we could have had at least another. We're still battling on a couple of fronts in April. I'm happy with that.

[PeterWithesShin]

[PaulWinch again]

Definitely take a win at this stage, but switched off and conceded a sloppy again though.  We've been doing it all season and it hasn't really mattered in league games we've won, but it could come back to bite us in this tie.

That said, I didn't think they were great defensively, especially defending set pieces so I fancy us to score over there.

Only point I’d challenge is “we’ve been doing it all season”. We haven’t been watertight this season, but in the first half of it we looked really coherent and the goals we conceded on the whole came more as a surprise (a few games excepted). Since the turn of the year we look really incoherent for decent stretches of games and conceding goals looks inevitable (and usually happens). Some of that is the loss of Kamara, but that’s not all of it. We just look really confused and unsure of the roles that should be undertaken defensively.

I keep thinking this, but hopefully a win brings a bit of confidence and we play we greater structure from now. Like I said I suspect we’ll need at least a couple next week.

[Toronto Villa]

They’re a good team with plenty of confidence in the top 4 of their league. No reason they should be any kind of pushover. It will be hard next week but not a game we should fear at all. We can absolutely go there and get a result and see the job through.

[rougegorge]

Well I thought it was a penalty at the time and looking back, how on earth did VAR take no action?

At 2-0 and comfortable, we started a familiar routine of letting them play 10 yards further up and we never picked them off once the subs came on.

For Martínez to be MOTM says quite a lot. He was only ropey on their disallowed goal, but he was outstanding otherwise.

David did very little, but I thought their midfield was sharp and ours was not at its best.

[Toronto Villa]

Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.

[rougegorge]

Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.

Yes, whilst we are the best we have been in a long time on attacking set pieces, we are too vulnerable defending them. It's not all his fault, but Carlos doesn't instil any confidence at all.

[Nev]

Well I enjoyed it. Given the injuries both long and short term we're doing great. Of course the sloppiness annoys me and I'm already nervous for the second leg because they look good but in the midst of our best season for some time I'm going not going to  live in fear. Roll on Sunday, roll on next Thursday.

[RamboandBruno]

Well McGinn seems upbeat and I think we all should be. They are a good side, but we should probably expect nothing else in a European competition quarter final. There is no doubt they will come away thinking we are a good side too. We won, thats the most important thing, it’ll be tough over there, but we’re more than capable of doing it.

[AV82EC]

Thought we were ok and well in control for most of the match. For all their possession they did fuck all with it as most of their chances came from us turning over the ball. I think at 2-0 we were managing and stifling the game very well but a stupid set piece goal given away. All to play for next week, think we’ll have too much for them as they don’t look that good at the back. One thing we didn’t make the most of in the first half was the yawning chasm between their press and defence, whenever we got the ball in there we caused them so many problems.

Also we have a game on Sunday so the last 20-30 was I think us conserving some energy, didn’t quite work but hopefully roughly the same team against the Tarquins.

Just need to look forward to a trip to Lille next week. Onwards….

[KevinGage]

Well McGinn seems upbeat and I think we all should be. They are a good side, but we should probably expect nothing else in a European competition quarter final. There is no doubt they will come away thinking we are a good side too. We won, thats the most important thing, it’ll be tough over there, but we’re more than capable of doing it.

There's a chance they'll be so encouraged by the amount of chances they created tonight that they'll go full pelt next week and we pick them off.

Underdog role suits us, to some extent.

[tomd2103]

Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.

Watching the highlights, no-one seems to pick their scorer up at all and he goes into a gap between Carlos and whoever it was defending the area beyond the near post.