Ross Barkley’s lucky break edges Aston Villa past Leipzig in five-goal thriller
After Jhon Durán scored, another ludicrously powerful strike within seven minutes of entering the field, he celebrated by showing the Aston Villa supporters the palms of his hands, as if to say, calm down, what else did you possibly expect? Perhaps it explains why Unai Emery, hands in the pockets of his puffer coat, was unmoved. Another substitute, Ross Barkley, ultimately earned victory, however, after Leipzig twice pegged Villa back, Lois Openda and Christoph Baumgartner cancelling out goals by John McGinn and that one from Durán.
Villa supporters crooned Emery’s name throughout and his changes proved inspired. Durán made another timely contribution and Barkley scored within two minutes of replacing Youri Tielemans. Barkley took aim from the edge of the box and his right-foot shot took a wicked deflection off the Germany defender Lukas Klostermann, wrong-footing Peter Gulacsi, to push Villa up to third. With a trip to Monaco and a home game against Celtic remaining in the league phase, Villa are in a fine spot to make a play for the top eight.
