Aston Villa qualify for Champions League after beating Liverpool
Aston Villa earned a 4-2 win over Liverpool at Villa Park on Friday night to book their place in next season’s Champions League.
Unai Emery’s side produced an imp performance to brush aside a poor Liverpool side who struggled to get going in the encounter.
Fresh from their disappointing performance against Chelsea last Saturday that drew jeers from their supporters Arne Slot’s side failed to pacify them with another listless showing.
Morgan Rodgers opened the scoring three minutes before halftime with a curling effort in the box after he was left alone.
Six minutes after the break, Virgil Van Dijk restored parity for Liverpool with a thumping header to make it 1-1.
Watkins capitalised on a costly slip by Dominik Szoboszlai to make it 2-1 for Aston Villa before completing his brace in the 73rd minute to compound Liverpool’s woes.
John McGinn scored a stunning goal in the 89th minute to put icing on the cake for Aston Villa before Van Dijk reduced the deficit to 4-2 in the 92nd minute.
Aston Villa held on to seal a vital victory which booked their place in next season’s Champions League following another impressive showing this year.
For Liverpool, It was another bad day at the office after they suffered their 19th defeat of the season in all competitions.
The Reds have also conceded 52 goals in the Premier League this season, the most by the club in a 38-game format.
Aston Villa coach, Unai Emery was full of praise for his players following the victory.
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He said: “Fantastic, today the match was very important for us because the the priority was the Premier League. We faced Liverpool and tested ourselves. It was a tough match in the first half but the second half was fantastic. I am grateful for the supporters. Champions League, this is something amazing.”
Liverpool coach, Arne Slot described the defeat as frustrating.
He said: “It’s not about me or how frustrated I am it’s frustrating for everyone involved – players, staff and definitely fans. Frustrating for players who came back and in football you can slip [Dominik Szoboszlai], but it’s so unfortunate. That is something that’s probably part of our season. We know what to do next week.”
Aston Villa will be back in action in the Europa League final on Wednesday while Liverpool will end their Premier League campaign against Brentford next Sunday.
Stats From Aston Villa vs Liverpool
Only five Premier League sides have conceded more goals than Liverpool this season (52).
Leeds – 53
Tottenham – 55
West Ham – 62
Wolves – 66
Burnley – 73
Unai Emery picked up his 600th win as a manager tonight with 107 of those coming with Aston Villa, his joint-most victories at one club (also 107 with Valenica).
Liverpool have now lost 20 games in all competitions this season while spending more than €450M on new players.
