After returning to the UEFA Champions League after a long 40 years, English team Aston Villa are now flying under Unai Emery. Playing in the UCL once was a dream for Aston Villa, and they now directly qualified for the last 16 in the new format of the Champions League.
With an impressive five wins, two losses, and a draw, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa ended the league phase in the top 8. But they could left out from the top 8 as they are only one point ahead of Atalanta in the point table. However, the Villans ran a riot over Celtic today and secured a dominating win, which secured the top eight to qualify directly to the round of 16.
Morgan Rogers scored a heroic hattrick today for Aston Villa and has become the first player to score twice in the opening five minutes of a Champions League game. Before the match, Rogers had never twice in a single game in his entire career and now he has scored his very first hat trick which is in the Champions League game!
“I’ve never scored two goals in a game in my career, so it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while. I’ve never had that experience, that feeling before, and to do it on this stage in a big game that we knew we needed to win is something I’ll remember forever,” said the hat-trick boy after the match.
Match Report
In a crucial game in the UCL, Aston Villa welcomed Celtic today at Villa Park. However, the home side did not waste minutes to break the deadlock as they took an early lead when Morgan Rogers drew the first blood in just 3rd minute of the match. After a while, the 22-year-old Rogers completed his brace with a fantastic finish and gave Aston Villa a 2-goal lead at Villa Park.
It seemed the match could be easy for Aston Villa as they already had a lead of two goals, but Celtic made a dramatic comeback within the first half. Adam Idah, a 23-year-old guy, scored two quick goals in the 36th and 38th minute to change the entire scenario. Relying on him, Celtic went to the break in a 2-2 tie.
However, Aston Villa took control of the match in the 2nd half as well. They got the lead again when Ollie Watkins scored in the 60th minute with the help of Ramsey.
The third goal of Aston Villa broke the visitors psychologically, yet they tried their best to return it. However, they failed to score again in the remaining minutes. In addition, Morgan Rogers led Aston Villa to victory with a hat-trick in injury time, securing a 4-2 win over Celtic and securing their place in the round of 16.