Lille vs Aston Villa post-match thread

[VillaTim]

I was having a look through the match thread. I saw the pic of the armed police with semi-automatic weapons. They were there because of the current level of the terrorist threat (remember Stade de France on the night of the Bataclan attack...) not to shoot pissed up Villa fans. ;-)

The same happened with the rescheduled U2 concerts at the Bercy arena (Accor) with the Eagles of Death Metal supporting . Heavy firearms outside before and after .

[Richard E]

I was having a look through the match thread. I saw the pic of the armed police with semi-automatic weapons. They were there because of the current level of the terrorist threat (remember Stade de France on the night of the Bataclan attack...) not to shoot pissed up Villa fans. ;-)

The same happened with the rescheduled U2 concerts at the Bercy arena (Accor) with the Eagles of Death Metal supporting . Heavy firearms outside before and after .

They were there to shoot Bono.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I love wearing my Emi t-shirt in France. It is a real conversation starter and allows me to pour scorn on my compatriots for being upset about the wrong thing. I'm still upset about the shit first half Les Bleus gave us. Had they played properly they might have beaten Argentina over 90 minutes. As it is, tough shit, and I proudly wear the cock and two stars.

To be fair, I've seen plenty of French people on Twitter saying "get over it, just accept that he's really good".

Good man. For a minute I thought I might be stuck with the 100,000 'Je suis un croyant' T shirts I was sending you to shift.

[Bad English]

I only had half an eye on the game for the first 75 minutes as I was required to be doing other stuff. However, it seemed to me that Zaniolo seemed to be a liability, like a rogue ball in a pinball machine. I was quite relieved when he went off. Do others see it like that?

[TelfordVilla]

I only had half an eye on the game for the first 75 minutes as I was required to be doing other stuff. However, it seemed to me that Zaniolo seemed to be a liability, like a rogue ball in a pinball machine. I was quite relieved when he went off. Do others see it like that?
[/quote
Yes

[Drummond]

I was having a look through the match thread. I saw the pic of the armed police with semi-automatic weapons. They were there because of the current level of the terrorist threat (remember Stade de France on the night of the Bataclan attack...) not to shoot pissed up Villa fans. ;-)

The same happened with the rescheduled U2 concerts at the Bercy arena (Accor) with the Eagles of Death Metal supporting . Heavy firearms outside before and after .

They were there to shoot Bono.

Well they were shit at that too then.

[eamonn]

I only had half an eye on the game for the first 75 minutes as I was required to be doing other stuff. However, it seemed to me that Zaniolo seemed to be a liability, like a rogue ball in a pinball machine. I was quite relieved when he went off. Do others see it like that?

Yes, but in fairness, he did vom.

[Louzie0]

I’ve always liked Zaniolo

[AV84]

I liked him at the start, cut him some slack when the betting stuff was happening, and I think we saw flashes of what he's capable of, and genuinely I really wanted him to succeed here. But it just hasn't happened, has it.

That said, he could possibly become the first player to win the Conference League twice. Which is kind of hilarious.

[KevinGage]

Still think there's one big Villa goal in him.

But don't think he'll be here beyond the summer.

[Louzie0]

I think he’s far better this end of the season than he was earlier. Perhaps he needed to get used to what UE wanted him to do and he wouldn’t be alone in that. I’d be sorry if he went.

[SaddVillan]

This is a rough translation of the match report/analysis/review from La Voix du Nord (The Voice of the North) - Lille's local newspaper.

LILLE – ASTON VILLA: SO CRUEL FOR LOSC…

At the end of a breathtaking penalty shootout, Emiliano Martinez maintained his legend as a French football nightmare by stopping Benjamin André's attempt.  LOSC thought they had done the hard part by leading 2-0 until the 87th minute.  The semi-final was on the horizon before suddenly disappearing...

It had to fall on Benjamin André and that sums up all the cruelty of the northern evening.  The northern captain almost became the hero of an extraordinary encounter by scoring twenty-three minutes from the end.  He left the Pierre-Mauroy pitch, sad and defeated, after seeing his penalty stopped by Emiliano Martinez.

And if it is not the words of team mates  Tiago Santos and Rémy Cabella, then the long applause of a stadium bruised by the outcome of the scenario that will be able to console him.  Lille will not go to the semi-final of the Europa Conference League even though it would not have been usurped.  “We had two great matches.  We would have deserved to go through but that’s football,” summed up coach Paulo Fonseca, trying to hide his immense disappointment.

 ALL THE EMOTIONS

There is another “but.”  His name is Emiliano Martinez and the Aston Villa goalkeeper allowed his team to arrive with a wild card in the north of France before completing his work in an event that he loves more than anything.  Where he showed that he could be, in a matter of seconds, great and hateful. 

As in the final of the Football World Cup, the Argentinian had the last word.  In the previous hundred and twenty minutes, he hadn't ended up having much work.

Helpless on the first two northern goals, he especially found himself in the right place to capture the goal bound shot from Bafodé Diakité in added time (90th +2).  The other serious attempts from Haraldsson (46th), Santos (108th), and Gomes (115th) were off target.

However, they would have justified the superiority of the Mastiffs who pressed, stifled, and made the Villans, 4th in the Premier League, dizzy.  We have rarely seen an English team in such difficulty on Pierre-Mauroy's pitch.


Paulo Fonseca decided to trust ten of the eleven starters from last Thursday.  Yusuf Yazici replaced the injured Edon Zhegrova on the right side.  And the Turk found himself in the right place to open the scoring with a splendid recovery, after an equally magnificent cross from Gabriel Gudmundsson (1-0, 15th). 

Lille put themselves in an ideal position from an unchallenged header from captain Andre, which made nearly 45,000 fans scream with happiness (2-0, 67th).

In the last quarter of an hour, Aston Villa finally came out of their torpor and reduced the score to general amazement (2-1, 87th).  Lille then went through all the emotions.  Lucas Chevalier also suggested that a beautiful star was hovering over Pierre-Mauroy by making two gigantic saves in extra time (100th, 120th).

He then saved Leon Bailey's shot in the penalty shoot-out  keeping the score to 3- 3.

Douglas Luiz then succeeded in his.  Not Benjamin André.  The evening suddenly turned into a nightmare.  What a cruel ending...

Great description of Emi:  "...great and hateful..."

[Brazilian Villain]

To quote Rio Ferdinand after Citeh's exit during the week, "That's what big clubs do. With history."

[LukeJames]

I liked him at the start, cut him some slack when the betting stuff was happening, and I think we saw flashes of what he's capable of, and genuinely I really wanted him to succeed here. But it just hasn't happened, has it.

That said, he could possibly become the first player to win the Conference League twice. Which is kind of hilarious.

Let's hope he's the guy that scores the winning goal in both Finals.

[PeterWithesShin]

If anyone knows about bottling it in Europe then Rio does.