Aston Villa beat Southampton 3-0 at the St Mary’s Stadium despite former Arsenal goalie Aaron Ramsdale saving two penalties. Villa are now three points from third place, raising hopes of Champions League qualification for the second season in a row.
Four days after the disappointing 3-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals, Aston Villa have taken a positive step to boost their hopes of making a return to the competition next season.
Villa started the game against already-relegated Southampton with early setbacks. They dominated possession and created chances but the score remained 0-0 at the hour mark, in what was a must-win game if they were to maintain hope of finishing in the top five. Southampton were resolute through wave after wave of pressure from Villa, limiting their visitors mostly to efforts from distance. Marcus Rashford came close to creating the opening in the 53rd minute, but his low cross across the six-yard box failed to meet a teammate.
Marco Asensio then saw his penalty saved by Aaron Ramsdale, after Jan Bednarek had fouled Ollie Watkins in the box. However, Watkins – who was subbed on for Rashford – broke the deadlock anyway just four minutes after, and Donyell Malen soon doubled the lead. Asensio saw another penalty saved by Ramsdale at stoppage time, but John McGinn converted from the rebound to send Villa fifth in the table, one place above Chelsea, who play on Sunday.
With the win, Villa remain strongly in contention for a second Champions League appearance in two years, after having been absent for 41 years.
