Basel 1-2 Aston Villa: Tielemans seals eighth consecutive win
Youri Tielemans came off the bench and made the difference for Aston Villa as they defeated Basel 2-1 in the Europa League.
Youri Tielemans made an immediate impact off the bench for Aston Villa as they beat Basel 2-1 in the Europa League.
After Flavius Daniliuc cancelled out Evann Guessand's opener before the break, half-time substitute Tielemans scored the winner for Unai Emery's side to move them up to third in the league phase and level on points with leaders Lyon.
It was an end-to-end start that saw Matty Cash and Dominik Schmid both go close, but Guessand made the breakthrough after 12 minutes as he scored on the spin in a crowded box after Xherdan Shaqiri failed to clear a corner.
Leo Leroy saw a goal ruled out for offside shortly before the half-hour mark, but Shaqiri atoned for his earlier error when his cross from a free-kick was guided past a helpless Marco Bizot by Daniliuc.
Emery replaced Cash with Tielemans for the second half, and his decision paid dividends after just seven minutes as Tielemans curled the ball in the bottom-right corner with ease to give Villa the lead.
Guessand and Jadon Sancho both went close to adding a third for the Premier League outfit, while Metinho fired over the bar at the other end, as Villa held on for all three points and their eighth consecutive victory in all competitions.
Data Debrief: Villa breach Basel's fortress
It was a tight contest at St. Jakob-Park, with Basel producing 0.83 expected goals (xG) from 11 attempts to Villa's 0.42 from seven shots, but Tielemans managed to separate the sides in Switzerland.
Along with his goal, the Belgium captain created one chance, completed 24 of his 26 passes (92.3%), and won 100% of his duels in midfield (four) to help Villa get over the line.
Villa also become the first time to beat Basel away from home in the Europa League since Belenenses in October 2015, snapping a 10-game unbeaten run (W8 D2) for the Swiss side.
