Aston Villa: Three things learned from win v Lille as John McGinn stinks
Aston Villa are through to the semi-finals of the UEFA Conference League having defeated Lille 4-3 on penalties, after drawing 3-3 on aggregate.
Unai Emery's side took a 2-1 lead into Thursday (18 April)'s quarter-final second leg after a brilliant performance at Villa Park but were flat from the off at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy as Lille took an early lead through Yunus Yazici.
Benjamin Andre's header midway through the second half put Lille 3-2 up on aggregate and heading towards victory, but Matty Cash's late screamer forced 30 minutes of extra-time, in which no further goals were scored.
That, therefore, meant penalties, with Youri Tielemans, Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Cash all scoring from the spot, and Emiliano Martinez making the vital save to deny Andre and send Villa through to the last four at Lille's expense.
Here are three key things that Villa News picked out from the game;
Emery escapes from Lille with reputation intact
Aston Villa were, to put it lightly, very lucky indeed to only be 2-0 down at the point Cash's 87th-minute strike rescued the game late on. In the first half, Villa were extremely passive and didn't register a single shot, as Lille fired five of their own towards goal to build up an xG of 0.84 on SofaScore.
Emery's half-time team talk didn't work immediately either, with Villa continuing to sit deep and winning just two aerial duels to Lille's six, one of which was a bullet header by the captain Andre to put Les Doges 2-0 up on the night and into a 3-2 aggregate lead.
The late rally from Cash and two saves from Martinez in the shoot-out proved decisive for Villa's hopes of staying in the competition and kept the European reputation of highly-rated Emery intact.
Martinez massively fortunate to make decisive save
Villa were spared a European exit thanks to Martinez in the penalty shootout, having already made a key save to keep Lille out in either half and preventing 0.37 xG's worth of goals in the process.
However, by the time he kept out Andre's decisive penalty, the Argentine goalkeeper was lucky to still be on the pitch. Having been judged to have goaded the Lille crowd while waiting for a ball before Ollie Watkins' penalty, Martinez was nearly shown a red card by the referee.
Picking up a second yellow card of the evening, rules that they reset before a penalty shootout saved his and Villa's blushes in the end.
McGinn must recover from dismal display
While Martinez and Matty Cash stood tall in the latter stages to rescue Villa and help them edge their way into the semi-finals, club captain John McGinn was already sat down, hooked by Emery in the 80th minute having recorded just a 6.3 overall on Sofascore.
McGinn completed just 58% of his 12 attempted passes, couldn't find a man with his only attempted cross, and lost possession nine times, including in four of his six ground duels.
After his goal in the first leg drew comparisons with Andres Iniesta, the onus is now on McGinn to recover from a rare poor showing and make his presence count, when Villa face either Olympiakos or Fenerbahce in the semi-finals.
For more Aston Villa news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.