John McGinn salutes Aston Villa’s ‘surreal’ European return

LEIPZIG – Aston Villa captain John McGinn toasted his side’s unexpected impressive return to the Champions League after their 3-2 victory at RB Leipzig on Dec 10 put them on course for the knockout stages.

Villa moved to third in the table – ahead of a round of fixtures on Dec 11 – and on track to finish in the top eight, and avoid another round of play-offs – 41 years after their last campaign at the highest level of European football.

“It’s a bit surreal,” McGinn told Amazon Prime after the game.

He also said that he “didn’t know” how far Villa could go in the Champions League this season, adding that “obviously, it’s our first season back in the Champions League for a long time, so we’re just going to take each game as it comes”.

“If we get into the top eight, brilliant. That’s the target now and hopefully we can do that,” he said.

McGinn opened the scoring after just three minutes as Villa took the lead twice, only for Leipzig to equalise at RB Arena.

Veteran midfielder Ross Barkley scored the late winner two minutes after coming off the bench, with the long-range deflected effort being the 31-year-old’s first Champions League goal. He said: “That’s the role of the lads on the bench. I’m happy to come off the bench and score the winner. They all count, don’t they?”

Leipzig scored via Lois Openda and Christoph Baumgartner, while Villa’s other goal came from another super sub in Jhon Duran, who made yet another case to be included in Unai Emery’s starting line-up with his blistering strike.

The Colombian’s impact was instantly felt when he came on after the break and his rocket from about 30 metres out that soared over goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi’s head was his sixth goal off the bench this season – the most by any player in Europe’s big-five leagues in 2024-25.

Ollie Watkins usually starts ahead of Duran and, when asked if a hungry young player such as Duran had put pressure on him to start, manager Emery said: “Of course, he is very impassioned and we have to try and keep balance with him.”

The Villa boss added that his side’s performances in Europe had exceeded their pre-tournament expectations.

“Our target now is higher than when we started in this competition,” the four-time Europa League winner said.

“Now we’ve achieved it with the top 24, maybe today with the top 16, and we have a chance at the top eight. Today was very important to take another step forward and be close to the top eight. We are recovering our confidence.”

AFP, REUTERS