Aston Villa clinches Europa League progression
Aston Villa reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League as goals from John McGinn and Leon Bailey earned a 2-0 win over Lille, which sealed a 3-0 aggregate triumph.
Having already led from the first leg at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Unai Emery's side cruised to its seventh consecutive win in the competition to book a spot in the last eight.
Both sides struggled to create any clear-cut chances in a low-key first half, with Amadou Onana's header from McGinn's corner saved by Berke Ozer just before the break.
However, the second half burst into life nine minutes after the restart when Nabil Bentaleb's curling free-kick from the edge of the box sailed into Emiliano Martinez's gloves.
Just 15 seconds later, the ball was in the net at the other end. Martinez launched a huge punt forward that sent Jadon Sancho on his way, with the Villa forward cutting inside before setting up McGinn, who picked out the bottom-right corner.
Olivier Giroud provided an almost instant response, but his fierce finish was ruled out for offside, with substitute Ollie Watkins then firing narrowly wide of the left post soon after.
Villa could have put the tie to bed in the 65th minute when Douglas Luiz put Sancho in behind, but as he steadied himself to shoot, his shot cannoned against the woodwork.
But for all of Lille's late pressure, which saw Martinez parry Noah Edjouma's curling effort, Villa sealed progression five minutes from time through Bailey, who tucked into an empty net after Watkins unselfishly squared the ball to him just 99 seconds after coming on.



































