Aston Villa v Lille Post-Match Thread

[PaulWinch again]

The confidence and contributions of Sancho, Watkins and Bailey have been low of late so it bodes well that all three came off last night with smiles on their faces having made impacts

Indeed fingers crossed.

[Pat McMahon]

After not a great 1st half, big improvement in the second, particularly good to see the best of Sancho and of course SJM scoring. Superb pass from Emi for the goal, let's see more of that and Unai, please can you have a word with Doug to cut out these needless free kicks he keeps giving away in dangerous areas.

He's done that his whole career with us , usually 3/4 yards outside the penalty box if not a free kick it'll be possession.

From memory, wasn't it one of those that took the Olympiakos tie away from us?

Didn’t he give away a daft handball penalty just after we’d equalised? And then missed a penalty himself. We beat ourselves that night if you throw in the high line against Kabbi.

[brontebilly]

Only saw second half, we got the goal against the run of play

That's a very negative take on it. The game was set up for that. We knew they needed to score and that's where we were going to pick them and we did exactly that.

Only for Lindelof they would have taken the lead early in the second half when they were on top. It wasn't as if we were comfortable defensively at the time. Our goal changed things but we were all over the place early in the second half until we scored.

[olaftab]

If I remember right Victor was in our starting team and played his role so what's "only" about it?

[PaulWinch again]

I think you’re catastrophising a bit - they had a phase with a bit of pressure, the case you cite where our defender did some good defending. We then scored, had other chances - they had another little phase but didn’t force any real chances and then we finished it.

We were largely in control - it’s very rare the opposition isn’t going to be on top for a bit.

[The Edge]

Only saw second half, we got the goal against the run of play

That's a very negative take on it. The game was set up for that. We knew they needed to score and that's where we were going to pick them and we did exactly that.

Only for Lindelof they would have taken the lead early in the second half when they were on top. It wasn't as if we were comfortable defensively at the time. Our goal changed things but we were all over the place early in the second half until we scored.

You mean Lindelhoff defending which is what he's there for? Top stuff Bronte

[RamboandBruno]

Only saw second half, we got the goal against the run of play

That's a very negative take on it. The game was set up for that. We knew they needed to score and that's where we were going to pick them and we did exactly that.

Only for Lindelof they would have taken the lead early in the second half when they were on top. It wasn't as if we were comfortable defensively at the time. Our goal changed things but we were all over the place early in the second half until we scored.

There really wasn’t any point in any part of the match when they were on top. They had a couple of moments when they had a couple of half chances at best. Their keeper pulled off a good save from Onanas header, saved well from Elliot, Sancho hit the post and Ollie fluffed one at the end. It could of conceivably been 5-0 without us getting out of 3rd gear.

[dave.woodhall]

Only saw second half, we got the goal against the run of play

That's a very negative take on it. The game was set up for that. We knew they needed to score and that's where we were going to pick them and we did exactly that.

Only for Lindelof they would have taken the lead early in the second half when they were on top. It wasn't as if we were comfortable defensively at the time. Our goal changed things but we were all over the place early in the second half until we scored.

Moaning when we won easily and you missed half the match is good going. Well done.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Only saw second half, we got the goal against the run of play

That's a very negative take on it. The game was set up for that. We knew they needed to score and that's where we were going to pick them and we did exactly that.

Bronté you're lucky you only saw the second half , first half they parked the bus. Second half they knew they'd have to come at us, they tried and we sprang the trap, two beautiful goals on the counter, both with Villa attacks and tonnes of space to run into. They didn't know what hit them but knew the game was well and truly over.

[Clampy]

I said to our whatsapp group during the first half that a goal for us will kill it as Lille didnt really offer anything.

[eamonn]

Nice for Giroud to add to his collection of goals against the Villa with two more, albeit offside. In fairness, thought he came across very well in his TNT interview afterwards.