The context already promised a lot. For me, this was clearly the best game of this Europe League matchday: Fenerbahçe at home, packed with big names and unbeaten in the Turkish league, against an Aston Villa side that continues to be one of the most interesting teams in English football right now, even if not at the peak of its form. Everything pointed towards an open, intense game with goals.
Fenerbahçe started better. They had more of the ball in the opening minutes and tried to impose themselves, but it quickly became clear that possession did not equal danger. The team moved the ball around, but lacked clarity in the final third. Aston Villa, on the other hand, began more cautiously, almost feeling the atmosphere, but defended well and waited patiently for the right moments to accelerate.
And when they did accelerate, they became dangerous. Gradually, Villa started to find space with ease whenever they broke the first line of pressure. Rogers began to appear more, Watkins attacked the space in behind and Sancho grew in confidence. Fenerbahçe had strong individual duelists, but collectively left huge gaps between the lines.
The goal came precisely from that. In the 25th minute, Aston Villa built down the right flank, moved the ball quickly, Cash crossed and Yüksek tried to clear with a header. The problem was that the clearance was weak and backwards. Sancho, well positioned, only had to nod it in.
Fenerbahçe felt the blow. They kept the ball, but without clear ideas. Fred tried shots from distance, Asensio looked for individual solutions, Durán battled hard, but was almost always well controlled by Mings. Aston Villa, whenever they recovered the ball, had open field to attack. In one of those situations, Sancho could even have made it 2-0 on a counter-attack with numerical superiority, but chose to dribble instead of finishing. He did end up scoring, but the play was ruled out due to the ball hitting the referee.
In the second half, the game remained intense. Fenerbahçe came out more aggressive and took more risks, especially after Talisca came on, adding a different level of quality to the final pass. They had one of the best chances of the game when he received the ball inside the box completely unmarked, but the shot went straight at Bizot, who responded well.
Aston Villa also had everything to kill the game. Buendía caught Ederson completely off his line and failed to take advantage. Sancho missed another clear chance after a cutback from Rogers. Cash even hit the post with a long-range effort. It was one of those games where any small detail could change everything.
Fenerbahçe did manage to score, but the goal was disallowed for offside against Jhon Durán. The effort was there, the late pressure too, but the efficiency was not.
In the final minutes, Villa dropped their lines, accepted the suffering and defended intelligently. Škriniar was enormous on the Turkish side, but it was not enough.
Post-match
Aston Villa leave Istanbul with a win full of maturity. It was not brilliant and not dominant, but it was competent. They knew how to suffer, how to exploit the opponent’s mistakes and still had clear chances to decide the game earlier.
Fenerbahçe are left with a bittersweet feeling. They showed individual quality, intensity and courage, but once again failed where it hurts most: defensive organisation and composure in front of goal.
Unai Emery, in his 100th Europe League game, once again proved that few coaches know how to compete in these european contexts like he does. It was not a spectacular Villa, but it was an adult Villa. And on nights like these, that makes all the difference.