Aston Villa’s defensive strength shone through as they secured a vital 1-0 victory against Lille in their Europa League round of 16 first leg, thanks to Ollie Watkins’ crucial header.
The match in France on Thursday highlighted Villa’s resilience, with the team managing to keep a clean sheet that has eluded them in recent weeks.
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Ezri Konsa expressed his satisfaction with the defensive performance after the match, noting how critical the clean sheet was to their success. “So far, so good,” Konsa said. “It hasn’t been a good couple of months for us, we haven’t got results that we needed.”
He added, “But we knew how big today was, we needed to win. We played here a couple of seasons ago, we knew how tough it would be.” The emphasis on defensive discipline was evident as Villa worked hard to deny Lille any scoring opportunities.
Konsa continued, “For me, the main thing is we kept a clean sheet, something we’ve struggled to do over the last couple of games.” Looking ahead, he cautioned, “We’re not going to get too happy, we know there’s still a second leg to play for, we have to focus on that and finish the job.”
