Donyell Malen scored twice in Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Young Boys in the Europa League but was also struck on the head by a missile as crowd problems in the away end marred the night.
Malen’s two first-half goals made it a largely routine evening for Unai Emery’s in-form side on the field, although substitute Joel Monteiro’s goal, awarded in stoppage-time following a VAR check, provided a brief scare at the end for the Premier League team.
But the disturbance off the field was more of a challenge for Villa than anything that happened on it. Young Boys supporters threw objects at Malen as he celebrated his first goal and there was further unrest when police attempted to remove a number of them.
Seats appeared to be among the items hurled towards the police as Young Boys captain Loris Benito went over in a forlorn attempt to calm the crowd. The incident delayed the restart following Malen’s second goal late in the first half but the game soon continued.
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Sky Sports’ Rob Jones explains why crowd chaos erupted during the first half
The performance of the Dutchman, deputising for Ollie Watkins through the middle, pushes his claim for a regular starting spot in the Villa side. Malen has scored in three of his last four appearances, helping to turn the other after coming on away to Leeds.
His understanding with Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers, who provided the assists for his first and second goals, respectively, was one of the positives for Emery. Tielemans’ return, in particular, helps Villa to look much more dangerous in possession.
It is four wins from five games in the Europa League for the favourites now, on course to progress to the knockout stages and claim a prize that Emery has already won four times in a career. Villa resume their Premier League push at home to Wolves on Sunday.
‘Unsavoury scenes’
Rob Jones’ verdict for Sky Sports from Villa Park:
“For the first 40 minutes of the game, it was pretty good-natured. The Young Boys fans were making a good noise. There was plenty of energy but the mood on that side of the stadium changed when Aston Villa scored their opening goal.
“Donyell Malen scored and then ran across towards the Young Boys fans but not in an antagonistic way. He wasn’t that near but as he ran to that side of the ground, a host of things were thrown from the visiting supporters and one of them clearly hit Malen on the head.
“He finished the half after scoring a second goal with a clear cut on his head which had drawn blood.
“He scored the second goal and ran towards the same side of the ground but nowhere near the Young Boys supporters. They tried their best to throw something but he was too far away.
“After that it happened it became a lot more heated between the stewards inside the ground and the Young Boys fans. Initially, it was plastic cups being thrown but after that there were at least two or three pale blue seats that were thrown by Young Boys supporters.
“After that there was a delay in the game as the stewards came together with the supporters who were at the right of the front of that stand and two or three supporters were ejected.
“It was pretty unsavoury, the scenes we saw.”
Young Boys coach: We apologise
Young Boys head coach Gerardo Seoane speaking in the press conference about the crowd incidents that disrupted the game against Aston Villa:
“I think it’s normal when you score a goal that you want to celebrate with your team-mates. Maybe it was a small provocation, I don’t know. Our fans maybe took this like a provocation, but I think this is part of the football, our fans should not react so heavily.
“The referee asked our captain to go to our supporters, and he was going there to calm a bit, and I think some supporters came down to have a talk, and the police reacted like they would jump into the pitch, but it was not their intention, this is what I know, and I think they reacted a bit early.
“It’s a pity for everybody, for the provocations, for throwing the object, for thinking that somebody would jump on the pitch, and I think the result is not nice for anybody, and for sure we apologise. We don’t feel good.
“The way our supporters are normally, it is not how we want to act when we are guests somewhere, and I think nobody wins at the end, everybody loses with this situation.”
Emery: We must learn from this
Speaking in the press conference, Emery was more succinct about the crowd trouble. “We need respect for both sides. It is not necessary to get a moment like we had today.” He also confirmed that Malen was not seriously hurt.
While Emery said that Villa “made one step forward” with their performance, he did feel there was a lesson to be learned. “We were consistent but not ruthless when winning 2-0. We did not really use the opportunity to score more goals,” he said.
“We relaxed a bit in the second half. A team like Young Boys, experienced players, experienced in Europe, never giving up, they could score a goal like they did and we could get in trouble. We deserved [to win] but we must learn to avoid this in future.”
Villa’s win in stats
Across the last three major European campaigns (since the start of 2023-24), Aston Villa have won more home games than any other side (P15 W13 D1 L1).Young Boys have failed to win on any of their seven European visits to England (D2 L5), only avoiding defeat in draws with Liverpool (2-2 in UEFA Europa League, November 2012) and Man Utd (1-1 in UEFA Champions League, December 2021).Donyell Malen has either scored (5 goals) or assisted (1 assist) in five of his last six appearances for club and country, while all six of his goals for Aston Villa in all competitions this season have been scored at Villa Park.Since the competition’s rebrand in 2009-10, no player has scored more UEFA Europa League goals without registering a single assist than Aston Villa’s Donyell Malen (12 goals, 0 assists – level with Fernando Torres & Youssef En-Nesyri).Aston Villa provoked six offsides this evening, catching their opponents offside 70 times overall this season in all competitions, more than any other Premier League side (Chelsea next with 53).Young Boys scored with their only shot on target of the game after 89:44.
