Ollie Watkins kickstarted Aston Villa’s near-perfect evening as his 100th goal for the club enabled Unai Emery’s side to cruise into a semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
The England striker, looking to earn a late recall into Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad, tapped home in the 16th minute before goals from Emiliano Buendía and Morgan Rogers followed the latter’s spurned penalty. Ezri Konsa, who had set this emphatic aggregate victory in motion with the first goal in the first leg last week, rounded off the triumph by volleying home late on after Tammy Abraham headed on a corner.
Emery, seeking to win this competition as a manager for the fifth time, could barely have asked for a more forgiving quarter-final. Villa can now return to their other bid for Champions League qualification, welcoming Sunderland here in the Premier League on Sunday, barely having broken sweat.
Already 3-1 to the good from the first leg, Emery named an unchanged Villa lineup for successive European games for the first time in his reign. Unbeaten in Europe when John McGinn and Youri Tielemans have both been in the starting XI, Villa were on the front foot from the off.
Once the smoke from the pre-match flares had dispersed, it became clear Villa were not intent on sitting on their advantage. Starting up front alongside Watkins in a compact 4-4-2 formation, Rogers dropped deep to drive at the Italians’ defence before turning to leave the ball for Tielemans. When it landed at Buendía’s feet just outside the area, his pass in behind was perfectly weighted for Rogers’s surging run and a low, first-time cross along the six-yard line eluded goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia to leave Watkins with surely the simplest of his 13 goals this season.
