Aston Villa suffered a Europa League humbling as they were beaten by the Dutch minnows Go Ahead Eagles in Deventer. Unai Emery’s side looked on course to extend their winning streak to six matches in all competitions when they went ahead in the fourth minute through Evann Guessand. They missed a host of chances to finish the game, though, and came unstuck as goals from Mathis Suray and Mats Deijl either side of half-time gave Go Ahead Eagles a famous victory in one of the biggest games in their history.
This was an unexpected blip in Villa’s quest to finish in the top eight of the league phase as Emery plots a fifth Europa League title, and Emiliano Buendía missed a penalty late on to get his side back on level terms. It was also a disappointing night for Jadon Sancho, who failed to make a telling impact on the second start since his loan move from Manchester United and was withdrawn in the second half.
Villa, who face an in-form Manchester City on Sunday, should still have enough to make it through the league phase of the competition, though their next match is against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in what has become a hugely politicised fixture.
Go Ahead Eagles are a provincial club based 60 miles east of Amsterdam and were playing in the Dutch second tier as recently as 2021. The atmosphere in the 10,000-capacity De Adelaarshorst was raucous at the start of the match but Villa needed only minutes to quieten them down.
