Aston Villa put on a show against RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Unai Emery’s side didn’t make it easy for themselves, but Villa’s 3-2 win over Leipzig was deserved and it puts them into third place in the Champions League table.
Ross Barkley might have scored the winning goal five minutes from time, but Jhon Duran did it again for Aston Villa.
With the game level at the break, Emery hooked off Ollie Watkins and brought on Duran, who after just seven minutes, was wheeling away in celebration and putting his side 2-1 ahead.
The Colombian star actually had the ball in the back of the net again minutes later, but it was ruled out for offside – Watkins suffered the same fate in the first half.
But, in typical Duran fashion, he didn’t just score any ordinary goal, it was another long-range beauty to add to his already growing collection of stunning strikes.
RB Leipzig’s social media account reacts to Jhon Duran’s wonder goal for Aston Villa
That’s Duran’s tenth goal of the season in all competitions and he is now looking like a serious, serious player for Emery.
There was chaos to the 20-year-old’s game last season, and whilst he still brings that to the table, there is now an element of maturity and control.
But when Duran decided, from about 30 yards out to seemingly lob Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi with a curling effort, the German club’s official Twitter account had a brilliant response to it all.
‘Duran scores after just coming on,’ wrote RB Leipzig’s English Twitter account. ‘Typical,’ they added.
Duran’s stats for Villa against RB Leipzig
It was ‘typical’ indeed and this ‘typical’ play from Duran is now becoming frequent to the point where fans will be pushing for him to become that regular starter.
The issue facing Watkins is that Duran isn’t just scoring, his overall performances are improving and he was outstanding against Leipzig.
That all-round display and level of maturity will impress Emery, with WhoScored rating his performance at 7.79 against Leipzig.
| Shots | Goals | Passes | Key Passes | Accurate Through Balls | Acc Long balls | Dribbles | Fouled | Touches | Rating |
| 4 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 7.79 |
