1 year ago
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THERE WAS precious little coming from Jamaican international Leon Bailey after bagging his first UEFA Champions League goal during Aston Villa’s 3-1 win over Club Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium in Belgium yesterday, the winger seemingly staying focused on completing the job his goal started.
“First-leg win,” was his only comment about the round-of-16 away victory that came against a Brugge side they have lost to in this Champions League before.
Bailey’s goal came in the first three minutes of the encounter, the winger capitalising on a headed pass from Tyrone Mings, slamming a one-time effort into the bottom corner with his left foot.
Maxim De Cuyper would pull Club Brugge level in the 12th minute before an own goal from Brandon Mechele in the 82nd minute and an 88th-minute strike from Marco Asensio handed Villa the two-goal lead heading into the second leg.
The match was Aston Villa’s first appearance in the UCL knockout stages since 1983 where they were defeated 5-2 on aggregate by Juventus.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said the game went according to plan and has his eyes set on the second leg.
“It was like we planned,” Emery said. “My expectations were more or less the difficulties we had, with the respect we have for them, trying to adapt to them more than I usually want.
“There are still 90 minutes to play. We know their capacity. They won against Atalanta and they competed today very well. The most important thing now is to watch the match again with the players and to understand the difficulties we can face in Europe against every team.”
Bailey’s goal, while not his first in a UEFA club competition, was his first in the UCL.
The forward has previously scored in the UEFA Conference League (UECL) and the UEFA Europa League (UEL).
Bailey has scored two goals and bagged four assists in the UECL to go along with his further two goals and assist in the UECL qualifiers.
He also has 10 goals and two assists in the UEL competition to add to his three goals and three assists in the UEL qualifiers.
His early goal also created history when he became the second Reggae Boy to have scored in UEFA’s top-flight club competition.
Former national captain Wes Morgan was the first Jamaican to have reached the milestone when he scored for Leicester City in their 2-0 win against Sevilla in the round of 16.
Renaldo Cephas and Rolando Aarons have also scored in the UCL, albeit in the competition’s preliminary rounds.
The goal caps off a positive week for the forward who was also recently honoured for making his 100th Premier League appearance for Aston Villa.
Bailey is the third Jamaican-born to have reached the landmark, Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner (251) and Ricardo Fuller (140) being the players ahead of him.
English (US) ·