Youri Tielemans scored the winning goal for Aston Villa in a crucial 2-1 Europa League victory over Basel, which secured the club an eight successive win and a guaranteed play-off spot in the competition.
Aston Villa secured a critical 2-1 Europa League victory against Basel, extending their winning streak to eight games across all competitions.
Manager Unai Emery praised his squad’s determination, stating, “We struggled today… but I am happy how we played more or less 90 minutes and how we got this victory.”
Youri Tielemans came off the bench for Matty Cash to score the decisive goal, ensuring Villa clinched a play-off spot with two group games remaining.
Tielemans, who netted the winner eight minutes into the second half, acknowledged that the performance was not perfect, noting, “The pitch was not the best and you could see in our game it wasn’t as fluent as we could have been.”
Despite Evann Guessand’s opener being cancelled out by Basel’s Flavius Daniliuc, the Belgian’s strike earned the team three points and kept them clear in the automatic qualification places.