Key events
GOAL! Young Boys 0-2 Aston Villa (Ramsey 38)
Slapstick defending by the hosts. Camara plays a dreadful backpass to his keeper amid a crowded box. Watkins tries to nip in. Von Ballmoos brings him down. Watkins falls on the ball on the edge of the six-yard box. Ramsey digs it out from under him and slots into the far corner. That all happened in slow motion, in the cartoon style.
37 min: Ramsey pearls a low drive towards the bottom right. Von Ballmoos in the Young Boys goal claims well. After soaking up a lot of early Young Boys pressure, Villa have now wrested control. A second goal seems only a matter of time.
36 min: McGinn plays a lovely first-time pass down the left channel for Rogers, who is through on goal! He’s entitled to shoot, but tries to find Watkins in the middle, allowing Zoukrou to intercept and clear. Huge chance spurned.
35 min: Yes, though it doesn’t pay dividend this time. Digne again takes it short to McGinn, but this time gets the ball back and crosses himself. The ball ends up at the feet of Bogarde, who can’t get a shot away. Austin MacPhee’s imagination running riot.
34 min: He does now, though, showing Niasse a yellow card for hauling back Onana in midfield. The resulting free kick is worked wide left to Digne, who wins another corner. Do Villa have something else up their sleeve?
32 min: A Young Boys corner sent in from the left by Ugrinic. Easy for Martinez, who looks to bowl out quickly, but is hindered by Ganvoula. The keeper makes a performative meal of complaining about it, but the referee’s not going to reach into his pocket.
30 min: It should be two. Another simple long pass down the middle by Martinez, flicked on by Rogers, and Watkins is free. He surely must tear clear, shoot and score, one on one with the keeper, but he miscontrols. The ball gets stuck under his feet and when he eventually attempts a shot, it squirts slowly, harmlessly wide right.
29 min: Let’s credit Villa set-piece coach Austin MacPhee with a moral and spiritual assist there. If not an actual one. Villa’s first goal in Uefa’s premier competition since Peter Withe scored away at Juventus in 1983.
GOAL! Young Boys 0-1 Aston Villa (Tielemans 27)
This is a wonderful set piece! Digne taps the corner to McGinn, who curls long. The box is crowded in the middle, but Tielemans is alone, just inside the box on the right. He brings the ball down before pearling a low curler into the bottom left! That’s a bit of training-ground genius!
26 min: This is better from Villa. Tielemans swings in a free kick from the left but Watkins can’t get a shot away. Then Digne advances down the left and looks for Torres in the middle. His low cross is hacked out for a corner. From which …
24 min: … and so having said that, Villa very nearly open the scoring. A long hoof from Martinez down the middle of the park is met by Watkins, who cushions a wonderful header into the path of the in-rushing McGinn. The Villa skipper opens his body and sends a screeching shot towards the top-left corner. Just wide, just too high. That would have been a glorious route-one goal, fitting for an evening when we’ve been eulogising the 1980s.
22 min: Ugrinic gets up and takes the free kick himself. A fierce whip that’s punched powerfully clear from the middle of a crowded six-yard box by Martinez. The ball’s only half-cleared, and Colley sends a vicious rising drive inches over the bar from 20 yards. Martinez probably had that covered, but he was caught unawares with Colley shooting earlier than expected, so you wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Villa hanging on a bit here.
21 min: The game restarts. Young Boys are well on top. Ugrinic drives down the left and is cynically tugged down from behind by Bogarde, another player who may now be treading a fine disciplinary line.
19 min: Onana, the other player in the collision, is down as well. The medics come on and do their job. Meanwhile Ramsey takes the opportunity to change his boots. “Thanks to your plastic pitch observation, I went down a little rabbit hole about Wankdorf,” begins Joe Pearson. “There are a couple of interesting things about the stadium. The roof incorporates solar panels that produce over a million kWh per year, Is that a lot? I don’t know. Secondly, amid all the yellow and black seats is a single red seat, known as the Hot Seat. You can’t buy a ticket for it, but it is typically filled with someone who has Young Boys ties.”
17 min: Niasse bustles down the right only to be shoved in the back by Tielemans, who might have used up his free hits. One more, and he might be in the book. Then Hadjam dribbles gracefully down the left, before not-so-gracefully falling over when he enters the Villa box. He takes a whack as he falls; it’s not a penalty, but he will need some treatment after an accidental collision.
15 min: Ganvoula is sent scampering down the right, getting the jump on Digne. He crosses low and Villa are in the process of not dealing with the situation very well when the whistle rescues them. Offside. Just.
14 min: Unai Emery isn’t happy with his players, who haven’t really settled on the plastic pitch. He frantically, and angrily, issues beneficial advice, featuring words such as Eff and Jeff.
12 min: Young Boys are finding their groove. Colley and Ugrinic take turns to shoot from just inside the Villa box on the left. Colley’s effort is parried by Martinez, Ugrinic’s sails wide left.
11 min: Ugrinic takes this free kick as well, and it’s another looping, dipping effort. First up it’s too high for Colley to meet with his head, then it drops dangerously and Martinez stoops to parry on the edge of his six-yard box. Digne clears.
10 min: Bogarde lunges in on Colley, stretching for a loose ball he’s never going to reach. Another free kick, out on the left touchline. Bogarde slightly fortunate not to go into the book.
8 min: Ugrinic takes the free kick, and sends it straight at Martinez. It dips a little at the last, but doesn’t cause the World Cup winning keeper any discomfort.
7 min: Athekame bursts down the right then infield. He exchanges passes with Ganvoula before being clipped lightly by Tielemans. He goes down to purchase a soft free kick, 25 yards out in a fairly central position.
5 min: Some space for Ramsey on the left. He slips the ball infield for Rogers, who thinks about curling a shot goalwards from the edge of the box, but hesitates and allows the Young Boys defence to close him down.
4 min: Both teams scamper around, all early hope and promise. Not much shape to the match otherwise.
2 min: Two early observations. The pitch is plastic. Villa’s kit is extremely reminiscent of Beckham-era Manchester United. Think Sharp Digital and you’ll be whisked back to 2000 in a nanosecond.
Young Boys get the ball rolling. A cracking atmosphere at the Wankdorf Stadium. Our man on the spot, Ben Fisher, reports that Villa’s fans are “in good voice, determined to savour the occasion.” Meanwhile Karen Asad writes: “Always had sympathy for underdogs like Young Boys in the Champions League, but after reading Jonathan Liew’s piece on how these teams are actually monsters devouring their domestic competition, that’s done and dusted.”
The teams are out! Young Boys wear their yellow and black, while Villa sport third-choice blue. They’ve remixed the Champions League anthem, Uefa finding brand new ways of smearing their marketing mitts over the dots of George Frideric Handel. Oh Zadok!
Unai Emery talks to TNT Sport. “Good evening … we are going to try to play with confidence … to enjoy … and be competitive … we needed the bench to have impact before and we will need that again today … in training we were feeling good … we must focus on the gameplan … we will try to play with personality.”
How good was Gary Shaw? Diego Maradona once asked for his shirt. Yep, that good. Maradona put in his request after the Villa striker was instrumental in dismantling a brutish Barcelona side in the second leg of 1982 Super Cup. This piece, by our old pal Paul Doyle, tells the story in rip-roaring fashion, and is one of the all-time must-reads. If you’ve not seen it before, enjoy. You’re welcome.
Here’s how the Guardian, via the flowing pen of the legendary David Lacey, reported on Villa’s greatest night in 1982 …
… and here are the memories today of five of their heroes. If Ben Fisher’s piece somehow passed you by this morning, make yourself a cup of tea, pull up a chair, and enjoy. This is great fun, and is guaranteed to give Villa fans – and indeed everyone else who loves the sport – some warm and fuzzy feelings.
The reigning Swiss champions Young Boys are currently bottom of the Swiss Super League, without a win in their first six matches. That doesn’t quite tell the whole story, though. Having lost their three opening league fixtures back in July, they’ve since steadied the ship a bit with three draws, a couple of wins in the Swiss Cup, and home and away victories over Galatasaray to qualify for this fancy new Champions League, League Stage. (The branding folk didn’t think this through, did they.) Still, it’s not been the ideal start for Patrick Rahmen’s side, and in-form Villa will fancy their chances of getting their CLLS (I know, but we’ve got to call it something) campaign up and running with a win.
If it ain’t broke, etc. Villa have won three of their opening four games in the Premier League, and should have come away with something from the one they lost. So Unai Emery is understandably of the view that nothing much needs fixing right now. He names the same XI that started the 3-2 comeback win over Everton at the weekend.
The teams
Young Boys: von Ballmoos, Athekame, Camara, Zoukrou, Hadjam, Niasse, Lauper, Monteiro, Ugrinic, Colley, Ganvoula.
Subs: Keller, Marzino, Lakomy, Itten, Imeri, Chaiwa, Elia, Virginius, Abdu Conte, Benito, Blum, Males.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Bogarde, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Onana, Tielemans, McGinn, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins.
Subs: Gauci, Zych, Diego Carlos, Barkley, Duran, Buendia, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Bailey, Swinkels, Young.
Referee: Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria).
Preamble
After a 41-year wait, Aston Villa compete once more for Europe’s biggest prize. The timing could not be more poignant, with the passing yesterday of 1982’s golden boy. Rest well, Gary Shaw. Kick-off in Bern is at 5.45pm BST.
