John McGinn kickstarts Aston Villa’s season with victory against Bologna

<p>At last, a first win of the season for Aston Villa. They made harder work of it than they might have done against limited opponents, and there were rather more nervous moments than there probably should have been, but a win’s a win and, after the start to the season Villa have had, that’s the most important thing. But nobody should think Villa are back just yet.</p><p>They took an early lead, should have had the game wrapped up by the hour and Ollie Watkins missed a penalty to extend his goal drought but, in the end, it took a back-pedalling injury-time save from Marc Bizot to keep out a Remo Freuler header and preserve the victory. “We have won and this is the important thing,” said Unai Emery. “We have to recover more or less again the feeling of being strong and playing with confidence. We played well. If we had been more clinical with moments we had in the attacking third we could have got something, but over 90 minutes it was better than the last matches.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/sep/25/aston-villa-bologna-europa-league-match-report">Continue reading...</a>