Unai Emery knew what he was getting when he signed Marco Asensio: a three-time Champions League winner, for starters, but a high-pedigree star capable of bending games to his will. Just as Emery was getting hot under the collar on another awkward night at Club Brugge, the Villa manager booked for voicing his frustrations pitchside, a rare moment of quality snatched this game away from the hosts.
The mere presence of Asensio and Ollie Watkins seemed to spook Brandon Mechele into diverting Morgan Rogers’s superb cross into his own net and then Christos Tzolis clumsily chopped down Matty Cash and Asensio sent the subsequent penalty past Simon Mignolet. The cold reality is Villa toiled despite a dream start on their return to Belgium but it is hard to argue a two-goal advantage is not a sizeable buffer before next Wednesday’s second leg.
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