Basel 1–2 Aston Villa: Youri Tielemans strike ends Swiss side’s 10-year Europa League home run | OneFootball

Aston Villa registered a 2-1 victory at Basel in the Europa League on Thursday evening, securing at least a play-off spot as a result.

Villa started the game as the better side and they opened the scoring in the 12th minute.

Matty Cash’s corner was punched out by Marwin Hitz and Xherdan Shaqiri cleared the ball away, but only as far as Evann Guessand, who struck a low shot into the bottom corner.

Basel thought they had drawn level before the half hour mark, when Philip Otele headed the ball down to Leo Leroy to smash the ball into the net, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

The hosts finally found the equaliser in the 35th minute. Shaqiri’s free-kick picked out Flavius Daniliuc inside the area, and the Austrian dinked the ball over Marco Bizot to make it 1-1.

Shaqiri almost orchestrated another goal for Basel before half-time, crossing to Benie Traore, who Bizot denied from scoring with a brilliant save.

Youri Tielemans replaced Matty Cash at half-time, and the Belgian quickly made an immediate impact, restoring Villa’s lead with a side-footed finish.

Guessand should have given the Villans a two-goal cushion after receiving a pass from Jadon Sancho, but he fired his shot over the bar.

A mistake from Sancho almost gifted Basel the equaliser, as the English winger lost possession, allowing Otele to aim for the goal. His shot was blocked, and Metinho blasted the rebound over the post.

Otele squandered a chance to make it 2-2 late on, heading Dominik Schmid’s over the post.

The result means Basel have now suffered defeat their first home defeat in the Europa League since 2015.