Aston Villa strengthened their push to finish in the UEFA Europa League top eight with a hard-earned 2–1 win over Basel, marking just their second victory in their last seven away games in the competition and also following up their 2–1 Premier League victory against Arsenal with another.
While Basel’s UEL campaign has been inconsistent, Villa have been far more predictable and predictably strong, and they showed that again here; even Softfootball got the prediction of the game right, predicting a 2-1 victory in the pre-match report.
The victory was their X victory on the bounce, a feat that was celebrated by the Villains in a post made via their official X account.
They posted:
Villa started on the front foot, knowing a win would move them closer to the top 24 while still chasing a much higher finish. Their early pressure paid off when a loose ball in the box fell kindly for Evann Guessand, who calmly struck it into the bottom corner to give the visitors a deserved lead.
Basel, however, refused to buckle. They continued to push forward and thought they had equalised when Bénie Traoré squared the ball for Léo Leroy to curl into the far corner. Their celebrations were quickly halted, though, as VAR ruled Dominik Robin Schmid offside in the build-up.
Basel didn’t have to wait long for redemption; just moments later, Flavius Daniliuc beat Marco Bizot to Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick and nodded home to make it 1–1.
At halftime, Unai Emery made a decisive change, withdrawing Matty Cash for Youri Tielemans. The switch paid off almost instantly. Ten minutes into the second half, Tielemans swept a composed finish into the corner after being teed up by Emi Buendía, restoring Villa’s advantage.
Villa then managed the game with maturity, slowing the tempo and disrupting Basel’s attempts to build momentum. Jadon Sancho’s frustrated reaction to being substituted added a slight shadow to the night, but Villa’s control of the match never really wavered. Bizot even picked up a late yellow card for time-wasting, perfectly summing up Villa’s approach as they protected their lead.
Basel pushed hard late on, with Albian Ajeti flashing a header just wide, but Villa held firm to extend their winning streak to eight matches in all competitions. For Basel, it marked their first Europa League defeat at St. Jakob-Park since October 2015.
