Aston Villa hosted Young Boys in the Europa League and won 2-1 thanks to a Donyell Malen brace.
Unai Emery’s men had no trouble breaking down the Swiss side’s weak defence. It took them 27 minutes to score the opener, but it had been all Villa until then.
It stayed like that for basically the rest of the game as well. After all, Young Boys had no shots in the first half and ended the match with six. The first one came in the 55th minute – an ambitious strike from long range that went well wide.
Aston Villa relaxed in the second half and allowed the opposition to get into the game a little bit. The visitors did score in stoppage time, but the damage was already done.
How did Aston Villa beat Young Boys?
Wide play for the win
Emery predicted that the opponent would sit deep and try to make things difficult for them. Instead of forcing plays down the middle, he decided to shift the focus to the wings from the start.
The left hand side was clearly their preferred one, especially in the first half. 45% of their attacking actions came down the left in the initial 45 minutes, as opposed to 31% on the right and just 24% down the middle.
As a result, Ian Maatsen ended the game as the player with the most touches (82).
But the Villans were equally able to work in similar fashion down the right. It was actually how they broke the deadlock. Curiously, the build-up started on the left, swinging to the right, with Amadou Onana and Victor Lindelof trying to play the ball back towards the left.
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They eventually went to the opposite side, but it was clearly their ‘plan B’. Tielemans joined from the left and placed a beautiful cross that Donyell Malen headed home.
In the end, Unai Emery did a great job balancing both wings and switching the focus from one to the other throughout the game. They looked dangerous attacking from either side.
Donyell Malen’s efficient night
Malen stole the show with his two goals, but did it efficiently as well. The Dutchman scored twice from three shots – all of them on target.
He also turned a tally of 0.22 expected goals into 0.83 xGOT with his shot placement, increasing the probability of the attempts becoming goals.
Off the ball, his movement caused a lot of trouble to the Young Boys defence, who constantly had to backpedal in order to not be left behind due to his blistering pace. He was projecting himself forward to get runs in behind but also dropping deep sometimes to get involved in the build-up.
Morgan Rogers pulling all the strings
Morgan Rogers defended as a striker alongside Malen, acted as a number 10 when Villa had the ball, but roamed freely instead of occupying one specific space.
His movement was key for their wide overloads, always making sure that they had four men near the ball, alongside the full-back and winger from the specific side and the nearest defensive midfielder. This was often Youri Tielemans, who constantly looked to play through balls towards the forwards in behind.
Key stats:
- 3 big chances created (Ranked #1)
- 2 successful take-ons (Ranked #1)
- 4 chances created (Ranked #2)
- 24 passes in the final third (Ranked #2)
In the end, the 2-1 scoreline made the game look a lot closer than it actually was. Aston Villa created enough to score at least four, but couldn’t convert on a few of the chances.
| Aston Villa | Young Boys | |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 61% | 39% |
| Expected goals | 2.0 | 0.3 |
| Shots | 19 | 6 |
| Shots on target | 8 | 1 |
| Big chances | 6 | 0 |
Later on, with the match under control, the Villans relaxed and Young Boys capitalised with a well taken goal by Joel Monteiro.
But the overall numbers show the true dominance that the Villans imposed tonight at Villa Park. Up next are Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League, again at home.