Aston Villa beaten by Legia Warsaw on ECL debut
Aston Villa crashed to a chaotic 3-2 defeat on their Europa Conference League debut at Legia Warsaw.
Ernest Muci’s second-half winner saw Legia pull off a deserved victory in Poland despite Unai Emery’s side equalising twice.
Pawel Wszolek and Muci had twice given Legia a first-half lead only for Jhon Duran and Lucas Digne to peg them back.
But Muci pounced six minutes into the second half and Villa couldn’t recover again.
How Villa were undone
It took just two minutes for the energetic hosts to unpick their visitors with worrying simplicity. Muci sent Patryk Kun scampering down the right and he crossed for the onrushing Wszolek to fire in from eight yards.
But Villa equalised in the sixth minute when Nicolo Zaniolo’s strike from 25 yards was turned onto the bar by Kacper Tobiasz and Duran reacted quickest to nod in from close range.
However, Legia regained the lead after 26 minutes when Wszolek crossed for Muci to smash in before Unai Emery’s men levelled once more in the first half. John McGinn’s blocked shot fell to Digne on the edge of the box and his deflected volley found the top corner.
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The hosts wasted little time in going ahead again in the second half. Gual picked out Muci, who was pushed wide by Calum Chambers but still managed to squeeze his shot across Martinez and in off a post.
Emery brought on Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby but Villa almost fell further behind when Gual just failed to turn in after Martinez parried Bartosz Slisz’s drive.
From then there appeared little way back with Legia comfortable, seeing Jacob Ramsey’s shot go wide as Villa searched in vain for a late leveller.