Besides, strikes from Leon Bailey and Douglas Luiz made it a night to remember for Villa supporters.
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Aston Villa were at their ruthless best against Scottish side Hibernian in the Europa Conference League play-off first leg fixture. The English Premier League side registered a resounding 5-0 victory away from home. The hero of the night was only one man – Ollie Watkins, who scored a memorable hat-trick. Besides, strikes from Leon Bailey and Douglas Luiz made it a night to remember for Villa supporters.
With the second leg taking place at Villa Park, it would be highly unlikely to see Aston Villa not progress through from this point. After the match, Villa striker Ollie Watkins was understandably over the moon with his outing. However, he was also happy with the way how the entire quad approached the game. “It was a really professional performance. I thought we respected them, and, ultimately, that’s why we did really well tonight,” he was quoted as saying by the club’s website after the game.
“We controlled the game from the start. They were always going to put a bit of pressure on us from the start and we were going to give the ball away sometimes, but we remained calm and composed. We’ve scored a lot of goals here tonight and it’s going to take pressure off us going into the second leg.”
Watkins then went into detail to explain what was the reason behind his hat-trick in mid-week. “I haven’t scored in the previous games, but I’ve always remained focused and I knew that I’d get opportunities tonight. I just had to stay calm and be ready, and when they fell to me, I took them. I’m delighted to come away with the match ball and give the team some confidence going into the next few games. For me personally, it will give me confidence going into the weekend,” he explained.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery was pleased with the result and is keen to see it out in the second leg at home. “I’m very happy. It’s our debut in Europe again, in the Conference League, and we’re very excited. One thousand supporters of Aston Villa were here with us enjoying this moment. We prepared the match being very, very serious, being disciplined and trying to do our game plan being strong defensively and offensively,” he elaborated.
“At the end, the result was very good. I don’t know exactly if we deserved to win 5-0, but we deserved to win. We played, firstly, respecting them and, secondly, respecting this competition because we want to be in the group stage. We want to finish the second leg at home with our supporters, trying to be with our stadium full and starting a new way here in Europe.”
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