THE first leg of the UEFA Conference League play-off between Hibernian and Aston Villa at Easter Road tonight was not so much a Battle of Britain as a Lament in Leith.
A sell-out crowd packed into the stadium despite the early evening kick-off time in the hope of seeing Lee Johnson’s side pull off a famous and improbable result against Unai Emery’s expensively assembled team.
However, Paul Hanlon and his fellow Hibs players conceded a hat-trick of headers in the first-half and were effectively out of the competition as they traipsed dejectedly back to their dressing room at half-time.
READ MORE: Aberdeen sign Finland international Richard Jensen
Matters did not improve for them in the second-half. David Marshall had to pick the ball out of his net on another two occasions before the final whistle blew. The rematch at Villa Park next week is now a pointless exercise. Here are five talking points from the encounter.
GULF IN CLASS
On the previous occasion that Hibs faced English opposition at home in a European fixture they had dished out a 1-0 defeat to a Liverpool team that contained Ray Clemence, Phil Neal and Kevin Keegan and was managed by Bob Paisley thanks to a Joe Harper strike.
Could the current side replicate the heroics of Turnbull’s Tornadoes in that UEFA Cup first round first leg match way back in 1975 and keep alive their hopes of reaching the group stage? Their fans were, as always, optimistic.
The gulf in class, quality and even physicality between the Premier League down south and the Premiership was driven home during the 90 minutes. One-sided does not begin to describe it. The visitors took control of proceedings from kick-off and never relinquished it.
The Villa fans who travelled up to Edinburgh in large numbers lapped up the dominant display by their men. They chanted: “Can we play you every week?” Their green and white-clad counterparts in the 19,306-strong attednance were grateful that meetings with such formidable foes are not a regular occurrence by the end.
When Emery replaced Boubacar Kamara with Youri Tielemans in the second-half it underlined just what Johnson and his charges were up against.
WATKINS WONDER
Des Bremner - the former Scotland internationalist who attained legendary status at both Hibs and Villa during his illustrious playing career – carried the match ball onto the park before kick-off and received warm applause from both sets of supporters.
How Johnson needed a midfielder with the former European Cup winner’s ability to close down attacks, break up play and protect the defence tonight.
READ MORE: Morris dreaming of trip home for West Ham vs Aberdeen in Europa League
The visitors, who have lavished over £80m on new players during the summer, started with a strong side. Moussa Diaby, a £52m capture from Bayer Leverkusen, and Pau Torres, who cost £31.5m from Villarreal, were named in the line-up up front and in defence respectively.
Diaby, the French winger, showed what a threat he posed in just the sixth minute when he supplied Lucas Digne at the far post with a diagonal ball. His team mate rose and got a downward header on target. Marshall was perfectly positioned and blocked the attempt with his legs. But it was very much a taste of what was to come.
The former Scotland goalkeeper, who is no stranger to facing top class English opposition from his time down south with Norwich City, Cardiff City, Hull City, Wigan Athletic and Derby County, then did well to hold a Diaby attempt which took a wicked deflection .
He could, however, do absolutely nothing about the opener. John McGinn burst forward into the area and picked out Watkins. The forward leapt above Paul Hanlon and Will Fish and sent a glancing header into the net off the inside of the right post. It was an exceptional finish.
The second and third, scored by Watkins again and Leon Bailey, were none too shabby either. Watkins bagged his third just three minutes after the second-half started after being supplied by Digne and after a lengthy VAR check had shown he was not offside. Douglas Luiz completed the rout from the penalty spot after Lewis Stevenson had tripped substitute Bertrand Traore.
BRIGHT BOYLE
Emiliano Martinez, the Villa goalkeeper who helped Argentina lift the World Cup back in December and picked up the Golden Glove award for his performances at Qatar 2022, has had busier evenings in his career.
Hibs, though, had their moments. Johnson played Martin Boyle, Dylan Vente and Elie Youan up front in the hope they could use their pace to good effect and do some damage to their opponents on the counter attack. The former certainly made his presence felt.
READ MORE: Glasgow parents urge JD to review football academy deal
Boyle raced onto a Jordan Obita cross during the early exchanges and got a volley on target. His effort, however, lacked power and failed to trouble Martinez. He was undeterred. He dispossessed Pau Torres, had a shot blocked by Diego Carlos and drew a foul from Digne. His tireless endeavours, however, proved to no avail.
Youan forced Martinez to tip over his crossbar when the second-half commenced. But the French forward would only have had a consolation goal to celebrate if the South American had not been so alert.
MCGINN HOMECOMING
Hibs fans booed their former player McGinn, just as the Scotland internationalist predicted when he spoke to the media on Monday, whenever he got on the ball. But the Villa captain enjoyed his return to the ground where he spent three years plying his trade and lifted the Scottish Cup. He marshalled is men with calm authority throughout.
“Meatball” is clearly enjoying a good spell of early season form – which augurs well for the national team ahead of their Euro 2024 qualifier against Cyprus in Larnaca and the friendly with England at Hampden next month.
EURO SPECIALIST EMERY
This is Villa’s first foray into Europe in 13 long years. But their manager is no stranger to continental competition. The Spaniard won the Europa League three times with Sevilla and then lifted the trophy once again with Villarreal. Can he lead the Birmingham outfit to Conference League glory in the coming months. On this evidence, he very much can.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel