Substitute Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba scored a late winner as Aston Villa came from two goals down to beat RB Salzburg 3-2 and finish in the Europa League top two, but the victory was marred by an injury to Ollie Watkins.
Villa, already assured of a place in the last 16, picked up their seventh win from eight games in the group phase the hard way but Watkins was forced off with what looked to be a hamstring injury. Villa boss Unai Emery says the club will know more about the extent of the injury on Friday.
“He felt something, but not a lot,” Emery said. “We will test him tomorrow and hopefully we are thinking maybe not a lot [of time]. But I don’t know if he is going to be available or not for Sunday.”
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Unai Emery reflected on the Europa League win over Salzburg and Ollie Watkins’ injury
Salzburg had no other option but to go in search of the three points and got their reward for a fantastic first-half display when Karim Konate took advantage of Tyrone Mings’ error.
The Austrian league leaders inflicted further damage when Moussa Yeo converted from close range shortly after half-time.
Morgan Rogers stepped off the bench to halve the deficit and Mings atoned for his earlier error when he nodded the hosts level, before Jimoh-Aloba completed the comeback by netting his first senior goal in the 87th minute.
Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba celebrates his late winner for Aston Villa
How Villa fell behind and turned it around
On-loan Harvey Elliott’s future remains up in the air with Emery admitting his situation has not changed at the club, but he was named in the starting line-up for his first appearance since October.
Watkins showed how confident he is inside the first minute when he took aim from distance, with Elliott almost justifying his selection straightaway but seeing his effort from the rebound denied rather fortuitously by the legs of goalkeeper Alexander Schlager.
Salzburg knew they needed to win to stand any chance of continuing in the competition and the Austrian side hit the front in the 33rd minute. Mings was caught in two minds on the ball and was dispossessed by Edmund Baidoo, who squared for Konate to bundle the ball in despite the best efforts of Victor Lindelof.
Emery has had to deal with several injury issues lately and things got worse when Watkins was replaced by Rogers in the 35th minute after he felt towards his hamstring.
It took just four minutes of the second half for the visitors to double their lead.
Kerim Alajbegovic showed great footwork to slalom his way into the six-yard area and he squared the ball across for Yeo, who neatly flicked it into the net.
The home side found a way back into the contest midway through the half. Villa broke and Rogers played a neat one-two with Emi Buendia before expertly tucking a shot in at the near post.
They were on level terms in the 76th minute. Matty Cash sent in a teasing delivery and Mings got his head to it before Schlager’s fist and headed into an empty goal.
And Villa Park erupted as the hosts completed the turnaround three minutes from time when Jimoh-Aloba was on hand to finish Kadan Young’s cross.
Emery cheered by Villa’s comeback Europa League victory
“Europe always is difficult. It’s difficult to beat the opponents away and home,” said Aston Villa boss Unai Emery.
“Today we faced a team needing to win to have a chance to qualify and their idea is to get a lot of duels always going forward and we struggled in the first and second half, losing 2-0.
“But, how we reacted is something like in the league in the process we have this year. Of course, [I’m] very happy [with] the performance collective and individual good things but other things we must try to avoid for the next matches.
“Overall [I’m] happy and today we used some young players – for them it’s very important to have chances to show their progress.
“This competition is very important. [The] priority is Premier League but this is [the] second objective. How we connected with [the] fans today…they created atmosphere, helping us – and we reacted because of the energy.”
The key numbers from Villa Park
Aston Villa won when trailing by 2+ goals in a major European match for the third time, also doing so in September 1998 (3-2 vs Strømsgodset in the UEFA Cup) and April 2025 (3-2 vs PSG in the Champions League).FC RB Salzburg failed to win a major European game when leading by two goals for the first time since October 2011 against Athletic Club, drawing 2-2 in the UEFA Europa League.Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba was the fourth youngest player (19 years, 119 days) to score for Aston Villa in major European competition, behind Nathan Delfouneso (17y 319d), Darius Vassell (18y 94d) and Mark Walters (18y 154d).FC RB Salzburg’s Moussa Yeo is the second youngest player (21 years, 242 days) to score against Aston Villa in a major European match at Villa Park, behind only Christer George for Strømsgodset in September 1998 in the UEFA Cup (19 years, 35 days). The third youngest is Karim Konaté, who netted their opener tonight (21 years, 314 days).Tyrone Mings became Aston Villa’s oldest ever major European scorer (32 years, 322 days), breaking Ray Houghton’s record from September 1994 against Internazionale (32 years, 266 days).
