❗| 3’ A couple of fleet footed moves from Brugges and Bailey holding his neck in discomfort is the news so far.
❗| 7’ Plenty of Villa possession in Brugges’ half but the angles and distance are just off at the moment preventing any real chances from otherwise promising positions.
❗| 10’ Lovely pass and move in midfield before Tielemans blasts wildly over.
❗| 13’ Chance! Terrible defenisve play from Brugges allows Kamara to tee up Rogers, deflected wide, corner. Referee Stieler awards a non foul against Kamara that basically ends the opportunity.
❗| 14’ Nice play from Bailey who frees Watkins but a lucky defensive block in the area bounces the ball to safety.
❗| 15’ Carlos is punished for very little contact and a free kick is awarded just outside the box by Referee Stieler. A couple of typical European officiating moments there,
🟨 | 16’ Booking for Nielsen, acciedently catching Tielemans’ boot, that seemed harsh too.
❗| 18’ Not wishing to criticise but it’s so easy for teams to attack and cross well down the left with a centre back playing at right back, a massive oversight that for Villa, to be fair that and the lack of a backup ‘keeper are Emery’s only real squad weaknesses.
❗| 19’ Two Brugges attacks in quick succession despite looking very offside, either they were or the judgement and movement of the Brugges players is phenomenal. We talk fractions these days and they were defeinitely fractions offside.
❗| 20’ Another really soft free kick this time against Mings from refreee Stieler.
❗| 21’ Chance! Villa win the ball in midfleld and set Watkins free, agonisingly just wide, best chance of the game.
❗| 22’ Again Brugges so high up on the Villa defence that you can’t believe they’re not off side as they receive the ball, presumably the approach is to let them be and check later if a goal is scored, ridiculous.
❗| 23’ Great play from Maatsen on the left to keep the ball in but Villa are facing two banks of 5 in front of them from the home team as the challanges begin to get more robust.
❗| 24’ Chance! fabulous ball from Kamamra but McGinn cannot direct the header on goal and it bounces up and over.
🟨 | 25’ The refreee is having a mare, Mings is booked and Stieler decides to scream at Diego Carlos before booking him, Unai Emery is not impressed.
❗| 28’ The referee seems to have taken the fluidity out of the game, it certainly looks like Villa have been affected by those two bookings. Suddenly nerves are appaarent.
❗| 29’ Another Brugges attack, surely offside at the start, sees Martinez save onto the bar, the ball stays in and another Martinez save is requred… are these different rules? What is the point of a linesman? The flag should have been up on the first ball.
❗| 31’ Chance! Villa break through the 10 men block and Rogers’ shot is deflected for a corner
❗| 33’ Mingolet repeatedly pushes the Villa player in the back as he awaits a corner before a two man assault on Watkins prevents a shot. These are definitely different rules, if he’d have gone down on the fourth push would that be a peanlty?
❗| 35’ Again the Brugges attacker is ahead of Mings as he receives the ball in the box and dispatches a shot requiring a panicked clearance. That precipitates another follow up strike…. de ja vu. The combination of marginal offside delivery, a yard of space won, a strike and a follow up shot almost seems like a tactic from Brugges. Is this the first example of a team playing the system of referee’s lack of onfield decision making to their benefit? Certainly if you have a chance, any chance it creates momentum, being pulled back for offside negates that completely, not doing so has the total opposite effect. Brugges are undoubtedly benefiiting from that.
❗| 37’ Chance! McGinn from distance but Mingolet gets down easily.
❗| 38’ Brugges manage an attack without being offside and they are impressive technically but Villa aren’t helping themselves allowing play to come on to them so easily.
❗| 40’ A bit of possession for the last 2 minutes from Villa but no way through… it feels like they haven’t seen Brugges play…. Tielemans, subdued so far plays a ball into the box without a player near.
❗| 45’+2 Still Villa in possession but another aimless ball is the outcome before Brugges win the ball far too easily and are in on goal in a flash, by contrast Villa are playing with no pace or dynamism before a genuine foul in the centre circle sees a free kick for Tielemans to deliver. Comes to nothing. Poor half from Villa in then end. But there is a feeling here that Brugges know something we don’t.
🕒 | 45’+3 HT Club Brugge 0-0 Aston Villa
❗| 49’ A slightly barmy handball awarded against Rogers befor another diagonal ball comes in and Brugges are stretching Villa’s backline again.
❗| 50’ Referee Stieler has totally lost the plot. Self importantly strutting from the Villa half with players in tow, points to the spot as McGinn can hardly believe it and the referee claims that Mings’ movement of the ball with his hand in preparation for taking a free kick was handball. Absolute farce. The referee claims he ‘believes’ Martinez had already taken the free kick and awards the penalty. Totally unacceptable. MINGS ISN’T BOOKED. The same thing happened Arsenal v. Bayern last season. No action taken. Interesting but totally in keeping with how Stieler has officiated the game.
🥅 | 52’ Goal, (Club Brugges), Hans Vanaken, penalty
🔁 | 58’ Sub off, John McGinn, Sub on, Jhon Durán
❗| 60’ Villa are in a mess, as they attack they are hitting the first man whilst retreating with alacrity under pressure.
🔁 | 66’ Sub off, Tyrone Mings, Sub on, Pau Torres
🔁 | 66’ Sub off, Morgan Rogers, Sub on, Jacob Ramsey
❗| 69’ Villa cannot string a pass together, they seem unable to play against this Brugges defence, bizarre
❗| 70’ Brugges chance from distance
❗| 72’ More misplaced passing from Villa,
❗| 73’ Terrible cross from Bailey as he’s played in down the flank, straight into the ‘keeper’s arms with no force
🟨 | 77’ Referee Stieler books Vetlesen for a clear foul and apologises to the Brugges player. This is odd in the extreme.
❗| 78’ Tielemans delivers the ball from the resultant free kick but it’s powderpuff stuff and within a second Brugge are attacking with Villa committing unforced errors… are they all ill or something
❗| 79’ Duran is dragged to the ground from behind and another free kick is awarded
🔁 | 80’ Sub off, Ollie Watkins, Sub on, Emiliano Buendía
🔁 | 80’ Sub off, Diego Carlos, Sub on, Kosta Nedeljkovic
❗| 82’ More powderpuff aimless play from Villa, this is quite a shocking peformance on the back of the second half at Tottenham, three defeats in a row against inferior opposition ahead of a trip to League leaders Liverpool
❗| 83’ Brugges miles off side, release the attacker and Martinez is forced to come out of his area to save, no flag, no free kick.
❗| 85’ Shot wide by Kamara, for Villa today that’s a chance
❗| 87’ Another aimless shot from Villa, we may be playing 12 but we have been incredibly poor
❗| 88’ Buendía is everywhere but to such an extent that he can’t focus any play to good effect despite making more attacking moves in 8’ than the team had managed in the previous 80’
❗| 89’ Niggly foul after niggly foul from Brugges, Villa just can’t cope
🟨 | 90’ Villa lose the ball and Kamara lunges, misses, and is booked, if he’d connected there’s no doubt he’d have been off.
🗒️ | As ever Unai will be even-handed after tha game but he must be very very worried.
❗| 90+1 Cut back in the area from Maatsen but Villa cannot get the shot away
❗| 90+2 Cross into the box easily headed away
🟨 | 90’+3 Villa passively passing around the box before another hoof from Brugges relieves the ‘pressure’ ahead of a pathetic dive from a Brugge player feining an elbow from Konsa…. who is booked. Unbelievable. Brugees get the free kick and to their credit try to attack as Villa mess it up.
🗒️ | A truly woeful performance, worrying times. Three defeats in a row. Huge, huge question marks over what has happened.
🕒 | 90’+6 HT Club Brugge 1-0 Aston Villa