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Go Ahead Eagles officially have a 100% win rate against English clubs after coming from behind to beat Aston Villa on Thursday night.
Aston Villa were stunned in Deventer on a historic night for the Eredivisie side.
Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 Aston Villa: What happened in Deventer 👇
- Villa conceded and lost for the first time in Europe this season
- After beating superior opposition, Bologna and Feyenoord, Villa lose to Dutch underdogs
- Emiliano Buendia joins Ollie Watkins in missing penalties this season
- Defeat ends run of five wins for Villans
- Unai Emery: Go Ahead Eagles “fantastic defensively”
Evann Guessand’s fourth-minute opener got Unai Emery’s men off to the perfect start, but Mathis Suray’s goal in the 42nd minute ensured the score was level at half-time.
Mats Deilj scored just after the hour mark to hand Go Ahead Eagles a historic victory, with Emiliano Buendia blazing a penalty over the bar in the 79th minute.
It would have felt incredibly harsh on the Dutch side had Villa salvaged a draw. Thankfully for them, they didn’t, and in their first-ever match against English opposition, Go Ahead Eagles came out victorious.
Buendia showed “no composure” to continue Villa penalty woes
Villa’s only other penalty this season also came in the Europa League, when Ollie Watkins’ woeful effort was saved by Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski on matchday one.
While his effort was terrible, he at least hit the target. The same can’t be said for Buendia, who made it two misses from two spot-kicks for Villa this season.
“Certainly no composure. He’s just thumped it over,” Martin Keown said in commentary. “Driving rain here, windy. Just keep it low!”
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Villans head coach Emery said: “Normally Buendia has good numbers shooting penalties. Today he missed. It can happen.
“We will try to get more clinical than the last ones we had. The takers are clear. Buendia, Sancho, McGinn and Morgan can shoot penalties. Buendia can repeat.”
Emery discusses love/hate relationship with Europe
Villa’s first win of the season came in the Europa League against Bologna, and that result worked wonders in improving their Premier League form.
“Europe helped us to recover our bad form,” he said. “We won two matches and we felt better after it.
“Today, Europe showed us how difficult it is to play, and away. Even when dominating and creating chances, if you make mistakes and concede chances, maybe you can lose.”
The Spaniard continued: “We’ve had experiences like this. We lost at Legia Warsaw, we drew at Zrinjski and at Ajax. Sometimes we performed well. Today we made more chances, but we lost. This is football. We are analysing how you can be better than the opponent and still lose.
“In the second half, we had a penalty and we dominated. We conceded a few transitions, and they were clinical. They were fantastic defensively.”
Europa defeat mustn’t derail after wins kick-started Villa’s season
Wins against Bologna and Feyenoord were key in getting Aston Villa up and running this season, and disappointment in the Netherlands mustn’t have the opposite effect. It was just a really silly defeat for a team with so much momentum.
We wouldn’t say that if Villa’s next two games weren’t against Manchester City (h) and Liverpool (a), two of the three Premier League teams fancied for the title.
The Midlands side are now 11th in the Premier League and have stabilised their goal difference to zero, but things can change very quickly in football.
Two poor results and they could realistically fall back down to 15th, which isn’t the end of the world considering we’re only eight games in, but far from ideal for a team aiming for Champions League football.
Man City are in a good place right now and a difficult opponent for Villa, but Pep Guardiola knows how difficult playing at Villa Park is. Sunday’s result will say a lot about the credentials of both sides this campaign.