Aston Villa kicked off their Champions League campaign in dream style with a 3-0 victory over Young Boys.
Unai Emery took his Aston Villa players to Switzerland knowing it was imperative to start strong in the Champions League.
Young Boys’ artificial pitch made it a difficult challenge at first as Villa took a while to get used to the controversial surface but grew into the game and took the lead on 27 minutes.
A well-worked set piece, orchestrated by the brilliant Austin MacPhee, saw John McGinn whip a ball to the back post and Youri Tielemans bring the ball down superbly before arrowing his strike into the net.
Villa then scored their second in bizarre circumstances as Ollie Watkins reacted sharply to a back pass; he was brought down in the box but Jacob Ramsey slid the ball home with the goal at his mercy.
Watkins should have scored a third himself in the first half however, his goal was controversially chalked off before Amadou Onana rounded off the scoring with a thunderbolt from range in the second half.
- READ MORE: Aston Villa player ratings vs Young Boys, Morgan Rogers among three to excel but one ace gets 5/10
Morgan Rogers was ‘unplayable’ in Aston Villa’s win vs Young Boys
Tielemans continued his fine start to the season and orchestrated proceedings in the middle of the park while scoring an excellent goal.
Morgan Rogers didn’t get on the scoresheet but as usual, the 22-year-old was a complete menace to defend against and almost impossible for the hosts to stop.
This has become a regular occurrence for Rogers, who Jamie Redknapp dubbed ‘unplayable’ against Arsenal, with TNT Sports commentator Darren Fletcher attributing the same term to the Englishman.
Rogers was a sight to behold once more when driving forward with the ball and the youngster reinforced that nation by completing four dribbles, as per Sofascore, and creating four chances for his teammates.
When deployed in that second striker role behind Watkins, he is very difficult to pick up as he’s given license to drift left or right and pick up the ball from deep.
Rogers was simply instrumental in Villa securing a handsome 3-0 victory on Tuesday night as he announced his name in the Champions League.
- READ MORE: What Ollie Watkins was worryingly doing after coming off during Aston Villa’s win over Young Boys
Morgan Rogers is both exciting and frustrating
While it was an excellent night for Rogers and Villa as a whole, the attacking midfielder did showcase one deficiency in his game and that is decision-making.
For all of his sensational approach play and how dominates opponents with his lung-bursting runs, the England under-21 star is still without a goal contribution this term.
At times against Young Boys, he got himself in the situation to shoot but instead looked to play the ball into Watkins when he perhaps should have had a pop at goal himself.
It feels only a matter of time before Rogers sees the back of the net bulge this season and if it wasn’t for some hasty decision-making, that could have been in the Champions League.
