Aston Villa Edge Past Lille in Europa Conference League Quarter-Final First Leg
Watkins and McGinn on Target as Villa Secure Narrow Advantage
Aston Villa earned a crucial 2-1 victory over French side Lille on Thursday evening in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final at the Villa Park stadium.
Ollie Watkins opened the scoring for the home side in the 32nd minute, tapping in a cross from Ashley Young. John McGinn doubled Villa's lead just before half-time, firing home from close range after a neat one-two with Philippe Coutinho.
Lille pulled a goal back in the second half through Jonathan David, but it was not enough to prevent Villa from taking a narrow lead back to France for the second leg next week.
The result is a positive one for Aston Villa, who will now be confident of reaching the semi-finals of the competition. They will need to be wary of Lille's attacking threat in the second leg, but they will be buoyed by the fact that they have a one-goal advantage.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery was pleased with his team's performance and praised their character.
"I am very happy with the result and the performance," said Emery. "We showed great character and determination to come back from behind and win the game. We created a lot of chances and could have scored more goals, but we are happy with the 2-1 win.
"We know that Lille is a very good team, but we believe that we can beat them in the second leg. We will go to France with confidence and try to finish the job."
The second leg of the quarter-final will be played at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille on April 25.
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