Aston Villa have waited over 30 years to grace the Champions League stage.
And with the Midland giants mourning Gary Shaw – the legendary forward who played a starring role as Aston Villa won the European Cup in 1982 – this was a performance befitting the occasion.
Unai Emery’s side had two goals ruled out for handball in their Champions League curtain-raiser away to the Young Boys of Bern.
That they still returned from Switzerland basking in a 3-0 victory away from home in their maiden tournament appearance is testament to how Villa went about their business after a difficult start on the Wankdorf Arena’s pesky plastic pitch.
Amadou Onana shines in Aston Villa’s Champions League opener
Young Boys threatened to blow Aston Villa away in a dominant opening stanza in which they racked up shots like a Fresher in the local Prizym.
But once Youri Tielemans opened the scoring with a fine strike straight out of the Austin MacPhee playbook, the three points were only heading in one direction. A remarkable defensive mix-up reminiscent of those classic ‘Own Goals and Gaffes’ stocking fillers gifted Villa a second via Jacob Ramsey from point-blank range.
And after both Ollie Watkins and the in-form Jhon Duran – who Villa will be delighted to have kept following those deadline day offers – had strikes of their own ruled out by VAR, Amadou Onana set his sights and lathered enough sugary icing on top of the cake to make the Tooth Fairy a millionaire.
An inspired £50 million summer signing from Everton, Onana is already repaying Aston Villa’s faith with interest. This was the towering Belgian’s third goal for the club, on perhaps his most complete performance so far.
And the Swiss press, in their post-match autopsy, could not speak highly enough of a man who, albeit against one of the tournament’s weaker sides, already looks at home on the Champions League stage.
“(Aston Villa) needed the outstanding Belgian international Amadou Onana, who not only showed an extraordinary performance in midfield in his first Champions League game but also scored his first goal with an impressive long-range shot to make it 3-0,” writes Blick.
“The 23-year-old impressively showed why Aston Villa paid 60 million Swiss francs for him this summer.”
Unai Emery delighted with Young Boys win
Patrick Rahmen, the Young Boys coach, took some pride in the way his side started. Putting Villa under pressure, disrupting their rhythm, and firing off shots at Emiliano Martinez’s goal.
But once the masterful Tielemans took the ball down from a deep corner kick and fired it into the bottom corner, the visitors seized a level of control that they would not relinquish.
“It became extremely difficult,” Rahmen tells the official Young Boys YouTube channel, via his post-match press conference. “This team (has) incredible quality.
“Before (the late first-half flurry), I saw a balanced game where we did a lot of things very well. They had no chances until (they showed) their individual class.
“(Aston Villa have) top players.”
Emery, a master tactician at this level, could hardly have asked for a more convincing scoreline to kick off the group-stage. Aston Villa have tougher tests to come of course with Bayern Munich, Monaco, RB Leipzig and Juventus to come, but three goals and three points away from home will do for now.
“The most important thing is the process we are doing here. Some players don’t have experiences at the level of the Champions League and others do,” Emery, who dedicated the win to the late, great Shaw, tells the Villa website.
“We have to build and create a new way. The way we created last year in the Conference League was fantastic, even if we didn’t get to the final.
“We are using the experiences we are adding to do our best playing in the Champions League, starting with the respect we have for every team and with playing away always being very difficult.
“Our supporters are following us here and helping us. We have to be strong and be together even when we are playing away from Villa Park.”
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