UECL Recap: Aston Villa 2-1 Lille

LOSC Lille feared the worst when going 2-0 down in their Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg against Premier League side Aston Villa during their first leg tie in England, but Les Dogues managed to half the deficit before facing the Villains at home in a decisive clash next week.

Fonseca’s side began the game seeing a large proportion of possession, yet they would go behind frustratingly after Ollie Watkins found himself free from a corner and headed the English side into the lead (12′). The Englishman was a constant threat, and almost instantly doubled Villa’s lead when he found himself on goal, yet Bafodé Diakité would vitally block his effort.

Despite going behind Les Dogues kept pushing for an equaliser, but an imperious Emiliano Martinez made a string of saves to deny several LOSC attempts on goal. The first was Edon Zhegovra’s low strike on goal, before Diakité found himself denied one-on-one with the 2022 World Cup winner. One last chance would come the way of Lille just before the break as Jonathan David’s effort was parried away after being played in-behind by Gudmundsson.

Fonseca’s side fight back in second half

Aston Villa began the second half strongly, as Chevalier was called into action to deny Leon Bailey’s strike from the edge of the box. The Premier League side then cleverly doubled their lead in the tie, as Bailey played a square ball to McGinn at the corner, and the Scottish international finished first-time with precision (56′).

Fonseca’s fightback started to take shape, but Lille were cruelly denied a goal on the 62nd minute, as Gudmundsson was adjudged as offside whilst vollying home. Martinez was once again involved to deny an effort from Haraldsson, before Les Dogues would half the deficit for real via a near-post header from Diakité. Whilst there would be one more speculative curling-effort from Yacizi in injury time, the Ligue 1 Uber Eats side go into the second leg not yet out of the game!