RB Leipzig 2 Aston Villa 3: Barkley’s deflected strike gives Villans huge Champions League automatic qualifying boost
ASTON VILLA finally managed to grab the Red Bull by the horns as super sub Ross Barkley snatched a dramatic late win in Leipzig.
Villa inspirational sub was only on the park for two minutes when he crashed home a shot which took a wicked deflection off Lukas Klostermann to leave Peter Gulacsi stranded.
Villa rode their luck at times and led Leipzig twice – only to let them back in twice.
But Barkley’s winner proved just too much for the home side to recover from as Villa stormed into the top eight of the Champions League.
If Carlsberg did starts to a football match they would have hand-picked this one for Villa.
Unai Emery‘s men were in dreamland when skipper John McGinn fired them in front with just two minutes and 33 seconds on the clock.
Matty Cash, standing in for the injured Leon Bailey wide on the right – picked out Ollie Watkins with a deep cross to the back stick.
The England striker rose on his own and cushioned an inviting header into the path of McGinn who accepted the gift with glee.
The Scot expertly tucked the ball away with his less favoured right foot from nine yards to stun the hosts.
Only Peter Withe against Vitoria Guimaraes and Spartak Moscow, both in 1983, had managed to score quicker goals for Villa in Europe.
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The big stage certainly brings out the best in McGinn.
He scored his last goal for Villa in this competition against Bologna.
And he also overtook Scottish scoring legend Ally McCoist when he scored on his last two international outings against Croatia and Poland.
At that point Villa looked in cruise control.
Watkins was a fraction away from getting on the end of a Lucas Digne delivery which flashed across the face of goal.
Then Youri Tielemans and McGinn worked a short corner which ended with the Scot blazing his shot high and wide.
Tielemans was next to try his luck when he screwed his shot wide after good build-up play by McGinn, Digne and Watkins.
We all sat and waited for the next goal.
What we never expected was that RB Leipzig would score it!
Yet somehow after 27 minutes Leipzig struck as Villa undid all their previous good work.
Once again Villa’s Kamikaze defending reared its ugly head again in Europe.
The last time they were on their travels, Tyrone Mings committed football hari-kari, picking the ball up in his own box to hand Brugge a soft penalty and three points.
This time it was Emi Martinez and Diego Carlos‘s turn to hang their heads in shame.
Nicolas Seiwald’s hopeful punt forward should have been bread and butter for the World’s No.1 goalie and an experienced defender like Carlos to deal with.
Martinez actually started to come but then had second thoughts as he realised the ball was going to bounce just outside his penalty area.
So he slammed the brakes on and left Carlos to deal with the danger – only the Brazilian didn’t!
As Villa’s pair played pass the buck and dithered, Lois Openda cashed in.
He nipped in to nick the ball around Martinez and roll the ball into the unguarded net to notch a dramatic equaliser.
Stung, Villa surged back onto the front foot.
Matty Cash raced onto a Morgan Rogers through ball but Peter Gulacsi beat his shot away for a corner.
Villa thought they had regained the lead when McGinn sent Watkins clear and the striker calmly drilled the ball through Gulacsi’s legs.
But Villa’s joy was short-lived as the flag went up for offside and VAR agreed Watkins had just strayed a fraction off.
It was to be the striker’s last act as he went off at the break holding his thigh and was replaced by Jhon Duran.
The Colombian’s first involvement was to drill a low shot wide but boy did he make his second contribution count!
Emi Martinez set the ball rolling with a quick throw out to Youri Tielemans and Villa passed through Leipzig before the ball was worked to Duran, 45 yards from goal.
The big striker strode forward and unleashed an absolute peach of a left footer which ripped into the net, directly above Gulacsi’s head as he was caught slightly off his line.
It was a sensational finish on a par with his stunning winner against Bayern Munich.
Confidence soaring, Duran thought he had killed off Leipzig six minutes later.
Matty Cash broke down the right and delivered a perfect centre which Duran strode onto and slotted into the net from six yards.
However his celebrations were cut short by VAR who spotted Cash had strayed a fraction offside when he gathered the ball.
Incredibly Leipzig used that let-off to inspire them to equalise again!
Openda picked out Cristoph Baumgartner at the back post and his cushioned volley flew over Martinez to find the top corner of Villa’s net.
It was another spectacular finish which left Emery scratching his head at how his side had let another lead slip.
But it was almost worse when Pau Torres presented Lois Openda with a gift in front of goal, only for Martinez to bail him out with a crucial save.
Leipzig’s sponsors Red Bull might give you wings. But Villa’s RB gives you wins!