Villa make official caution to UEFA.
Aston Villa have lodged an official complaint against Legia Warsaw fans ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League match at Villa Park.
The match, which Villa won 2-1, was marred by scenes of violence that resulted in four police officers being injured after clashing with Legia supporters.
As Legia supporters were detained in a coach park outside Villa Park, flares and missiles were hurled at police, leading to 46 arrests.
The match kicked off on time but no Legia supporters were allowed to enter the stadium. A breakaway group were able to get close to the stadium and throw bottles at Villa fans from outside the stands. Aston Villa said they had reduced the number of tickets allocated to Legia due to concerns about crowd trouble. They also accused Legia of not co-operating with themselves, West Midlands Police and UEFA. The Polish club said they had refused to confirm whether they would accept Villa’s allocation of tickets at that point, which was in contrast to the normal UEFA operating procedures.
Aston Villa has filed an official complaint against Legia Warsaw over the Polish club’s behaviour and supporters before last night’s UEFA Europa conference league game at Villa Park.
The match was marred by unprecedented violence by Legia supporters outside the stadium, resulting in the injury of four police officers and 46 arrests. Throughout the day, the Polish club officials did not co-operate with Aston Villa, West Midlands Police or UEFA.
Watkins scores last-minute equaliser as Bournemouth draw with Aston Villa 2-2
Aston Villa 2-2 Bournemouth: Ollie Watkins scores dramatic equaliser in the 90th minute
Ollie Watkins scored a dramatic 90th minute equaliser to give Aston Villa a dramatic 2-2 draw against Bournemouth after Villa had looked certain to lose on the south coast.
Watkins, on as a substitute, pounced on a cross from substitute Diaby to head home his 13th goal this season with a fantastic back-heel.
Bournemouth, winners of three of their last four games, got off to a flyer and deservedly took the lead at the 10th minute thanks to a Diego Carlos goal.
Carlos played out from the back too casually and allowed Ryan Christie to pass the ball straight to Semenyo, who reacted quickly to find the bottom corner with a low shot from 12 yards. Semenyo went close to double the Cherries’ lead but his close-range shot was well saved by Villa keeper Emi Martinez, whose opposite number Neto did well to turn away Douglas Luiz’s 25-yard shot before Leon Bailey equalised for the visitors with a brilliant solo goal in the 22nd minute.
A late fitness test for Watkins paid off as Bailey was played into the box on the right and the Jamaican international burst into the penalty area and curled a left-footed shot beyond a helpless Neto.
Villa looked to have taken the lead at the end of the first half with Carlos side-footing home a close-range effort, only for the goal to be disallowed after a long-winded VAR review which showed that Lucas Digne had been off-side.
Semenya, who was lucky to escape with a yellow card for bringing down Bailey, who had already been cautioned, forced another fine save from Martinez, this time from a long-range shot from Solanke, who had got the better of makeshift right back Konsa and was rewarded with a point-blank save.
As the teams went into half-time level, Solanke scored his seventh goal in seven games for Bournemouth, this time from Christie’s cross.
Kerkez dribbles well down the left and flicks the ball into the path of Solanke who dribbles past Pau Torres before firing beyond Martinez.
In the 63rd minute, Solanke had a golden opportunity to make it three goals in as many minutes, but he couldn’t beat Martinez from close range after Marcus Tavernier dribbled the ball from his own half all the way down to the edge of Villa’s penalty area, where he fired a deflected shot just wide of the right post.
In stoppage time, Villain’s substitute, Jhon Duran, was inches away from levelling things up when he headed home a deflected ball from the edge of Bournemouth’s box 18 minutes from time.
Just when it looked like Bournemouth were going to have to fight for the win, the impressive Watkins stepped up to salvage a point for his team.
