Key events
57 min Lille push Vill back but can’t fid space in behind, Bouaddi wafting a ball forward that’s easily cleared before Mandi slides in behind, to no one.
56 min Onana goes down but looks to be fine; Emery will be relieved, because he can’t afford to lose another midfielder. I’d like to see more from this one, though – he’s got the physique and feet to take the ball off the defence and drive forward, but we do’t see it often enough.
54 min With the away-goals rule gone, 0-0 would be a pretty decent result for Villa, though, as I type, Fernandez-Pardo floats down the left and crosses … straight into Martinez’s gloves.
52 min Finally, Lille make their change, Fernandez-Pardo replacing Perrin.
51 min Perrin is desperate to go off but Villa keep playing, Pau into Luiz who flicks cleverly around the corner only for Buendia to misplace the next pass.
49 min Eeesh, Perrin has jiggered his groin, and that’ll be his evening over. Villa have started the half well, again claiming territory inside the Lille box. Watkins can’t find a teammate, but the game is more open now.
48 min A desperate interception prevents a through-ball picking out Rogers inside the box, then the same player attacks Perroud on the outside, leathering a rising shot into the side-netting.
47 min “Seeing as you’re discussing notable Villa away kits,” begins CJ O’Carroll, “the white one with the blue and black detail they wore during the 3-0 away loss to Inter in 1990 was an absolute banger, albeit also looking like an Inter away kit.”
Remember it well and must’ve been a sickener – 2-0 up from the first leg, lose 3-0 in the second. Did Dr Jozef Venglos ever recover?
46 min We go again…
Andre, who was limping at the end of the first half can’t continue, so Bouaddi replaces him. Badabing! (No offence Benjami, old mate).
Half-time email: It’s good to see wee Lille Giroud again!” chuckles Peter Oh. “Here’s to him and football-loving OGs all over the world!”
I once met Olivier Giroud in the toilet of a club. The attendant says “You … you’re …” “Oliver Giroud?” wonders Olivier Giroud. “Yes, that’s right,” confirms the attendant.
I then hilariously interjected that we knew for sure because he was looking in the mirror zhuzhing up his hair.
Half-time reading:
The scores form elsewhere:
Stuttgard 1-2 Porto
Bologna 0-0 Roma
Panathinaikos 0-0 Real Betis
HALF-TIME: Lille 0-0 Aston Villa
Lots of bluster, not much quality. The best chance fell to Giroud, who ought to have done better with his glancing header, but the keepers have had little to do.
45+2 min Rogers moves in off the right, weaving between two challenges and contemplating a shot, but the lane for it closes, forcing him backwards. No matter: he quickly gets the ball back, shoots low, and the ball is deflected behind; the ref says goalkick, but it makes no odds because he then blows up.
45 min We’ll have two additional minutes. Villa won’t be delighted with how they’ve played, but will be happy enough with the score.
43 min Perroud advances with the ball, lets go a skidder, and all Martinez can do is parry back into play … but Pau saves him, on his toes to run back and clear. Lille, though, maintain prerssure, wining and wasting a pair of corners.
42 min santos into Haraldsson, who holds up then knooks back and this time, he goes infield to Andre, who flips a return over the top and towards the by-line. So Santos flies towards it, stretches into a decent cross, and Giroud is in front of Pau, glancing a near-post header … just wide. That’s exactly the kind of chance he’s looking for, and one you expect him to gobble up.
41 min Yes, I know “‘Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation”, but that Spurs side lost one of the great FA Cup finals, featuring one of the great goals.
39 min “Just waking up in Sydney,” brags Paul Hardy, “and catching up on the game so far. That 86 Villa kit with the horizontal stripes brings back some memories. As a 10-year-old I got chosen to be the mascot for the first game of the season at home to Spurs. It was the season Clive Allen scored lots and he started off with a hat-trick in a 3-0 thumping. Was a great day out but got used to poor results quickly as a childhood Villa fan. It’s nice to have a bit more optimism these days!”
That Spurs team was very serious. I went to see them whack my team too, so easily Mitchell Thomas bagged a brace including an overhead kick – it was, I think, Hoddle’s last game at White Hart Lane.
38 min Bogarde down the right and he crosses low, but Mandi again times his intervention nicely. He knows how to defend.
37 min It’s not been much of a half – neither side has created even a half-chance – but I’ve seen enough to think there’s a decent tie in this. Let’s hope the teams find it.
34 min “Race week in Cheltenham but the rain/hour means the Frog is mercifully less full of horse-enthusiast cosplay than it might be.
Broadly disagree about Pau/Ty – both seem to have excellent brains, but Ty’s sometimes seems better suited to sensibly reasoned social commentary than football. Given the need for an absence of brain-fartery in the context of this match, Pau is my pick – plus, the quality of ball he can play might help the lack of forward momentum we seem to have in midfield at the moment.
As for Sancho … I think he’s been OK. Maybe even moving towards good, in moments. But if I could have done anything at all at the end of last season, I’d have moved mountains to keep Asensio. Buendia’s renaissance has provided mostly adequate cover, and he wouldn’t have solved the Tielemans/Kamara shaped holes we have at the moment, but I enjoyed every Asensio performance I saw in a Villa shirt.
With McGinn heading back and Tielemans presumably getting closer, the one mercy about Man Utd at the weekend is that Carrick has ditched the wing-backs. Wing-back systems seem to short circuit the Emery tactical brain (see, Crystal Palace, repeatedly); it’s highly curious for a manager of such obvious tactical chops to have such a recurring tactical weakness. Any thoughts?”
Sancho does my head in – I don’t understand how he got so far in the game without the edge most pros have, which I guess tells us how talented he is. In terms of Emery, two in midfield against a team with three and a spare man or men at the back makes it hard to control midfield.
33 min Giroud turns one around the corner to Perroud, in behind and in space; he cuts across a cut-back, Mukou arrives on to it … and sweeps just wide. He’ll be relieved to see the flag go up for offside.
31 min The corner comes to nowt, but the flow of this game might just’ve changed. Villa are looking to go forward now, and though they’ve not created a chance, they’re threatening in behind.
30 min Long ball over the top, just too long for Watkins, then Rogers drives through midfield and finds Onana, lanking along at inside-left … and Watkins is in the middle! His low cross is a goodun too, but Mandi does really well to slide in and intercept at cost of a corner.
28 min Sanch finds space down the right, but an insipid pass means he’s lucky to win a corner … which comes to nowt.
27 min “I’m surprised not to have seen this encounter billed as the Joe Cole derby,” chortles Darrien Bold.
Funny you say this, in all the years I’ve been writing these blogs, perhaps m very favourite bit came doing a Liverpool game – another club he’s famed for representing – and he was subbed, so I got to say “that’s the hook right there.”
26 min Buendia is picking up pockets now, filling that space between the lines. Villa need to keep hitting him, because he looks their most likely creator.
25 min Now Villa build down the left, Luiz’s shot from the edge blocked at source. But this is much better, another cross half-cleared and now it’s the visitors popping it about – though unlike them, Lille are looking to press and win the ball back.
24 min Bit of Villa possession, a lofted ball from Bogarde finding Watkins, whose chest control takes it behind Mbemba pawing at him then letting go.
22 min Talking of kits, the Villa way offering is not dissimilar to the one Boro wore in 1997.
20 min But this is much better Sancho pulling infield off the flank before flicking a pass back outside with the outside of his boot, finding Rogers rampaging into the space he vacated. The resultant cross flies beyond the back post, but that’s the best we’ve seen of Villa so far – a low bar, granted, but it’s something.
19 min And Mbemba is up but heads directly into the nearest defender and Villa clear. Lille, though, pick up possession with Haraldsson, who finds Santos, and his attempted cross hits Digne ricochets back into him, and goes behind for a goalkick. Villa have done nothing remotely offensive yet [insert gag here].
18 min Mbemba down the side for Giroud, but Pau is across quickly to intercept, only to knock behind for a corner. Perrin will swing it out…