Aston Villa secured their passage into the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League with a 1-1 draw against Zrinjski Mostar on Thursday night.
Unai Emery’s side had won four of their first five matches in Europe, so the pressure was off heading into this contest, which was evident in their performance.
The Spaniard made wholesale changes to the side that beat Arsenal 1-0 in the Premier League, giving rare starts to Jhon Duran, Leander Dendoncker and even youngster Filip Marschall in goal.
Aston Villa unsurprisingly started on the front foot and Nicolo Zaniolo showed his taste for goal on the night by smashing a volley over in the early stages.
Although Zrinjski had nothing to lose in the contest, they played like a side who were content with a point from the off and that was eventually their undoing when Emery’s side took the lead.
The substitution of Jacob Ramsey for John McGinn proved pivotal as the Scot sent in a superb cross for Zaniolo, who touched the ball down and stuck it in the back of the net for his first Aston Villa goal.
While Zrinjski would go on to level through a Matija Malekinusic deflected rocket, it couldn’t remove the smile from Zaniolo’s face after getting off the mark in claret and blue.
The Italian wasn’t the only player on the pitch who painted himself in a positive light with Douglas Luiz dominating proceedings in midfield.
Douglas Luiz showed his class against Zrinjski Mostar
In terms of picking out who performed well in a Villa shirt, it was a tough task, but Luiz generally didn’t put a foot wrong.
As he so often is, the 25-year-old was the orchestrator in midfield, lending the ball off the defence and spraying passes forward.
Although it was one of the quieter games for Villa and him in general, he still sprinkled his class onto proceedings.
He made a whopping 115 touches of the ball and completed an impressive 89% of his passes while finding his teammates with all six of his attempted long balls, as per Sofascore.
Luiz unsurprisingly stood out against lower-quality opposition and made it look easy out on the pitch.
It was a performance that wasn’t out of the ordinary for the Brazilian, who will be sorely missed for Sunday’s trip to Brentford after picking up a suspension for accruing five yellow cards this season.
After starting the season in exceptional form, Villa have placed a £100m asking price on their midfield maestro amid interest from clubs.
And performances – like the one on Thursday night – show why the Villans value him so highly.
