Youri Tielemans’ first-half header was sufficient to earn Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Fulham to maintain alive their hopes of Champions League soccer subsequent season.
Tielemans, the excellent participant on the Villa Park pitch, rose highest of all to energy in John McGinn’s Twelfth-minute nook as Unai Emery’s aspect moved stage on factors with each Nottingham Forest and Chelsea forward of their weekend matches.
Ollie Watkins spurned an amazing probability to double Villa’s lead at the beginning of the second half and ease residence nerves, which solely elevated minutes later when Ryan Sessegnon’s volley flashed previous Emi Martinez.
Staff information
Villa made simply the one alteration to the group that misplaced to Crystal Palace within the FA Cup semi-final as Unai Emery introduced in Ian Maatsen to switch the benched Lucas Digne at left-back.
In the meantime, Fulham made two modifications from the aspect that edged Southampton final weekend. Left-back Antonee Robinson was again after damage, whereas Sasa Lukic got here in for the injured Andreas Pereira in central midfield.
Nevertheless, the purpose was rightly dominated out as Sessegnon had clearly managed the ball along with his hand earlier than discovering the again of the online.
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Watch Paul Merson’s response to Ollie Watkins’ missed alternative to double Aston Villa’s lead towards Fulham
Villa then managed the second half expertly, helped by the guests having to play the ultimate 10 minutes with solely 10 gamers after Harrison Reed was pressured off with a calf drawback having solely simply come on and Marco Silva having already used all his substitutes.
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Ryan Sessegnon shoots into the online just for his effort to be dominated out following a VAR assessment
And regardless of sub Donyell Malen thumping the crossbar in damage time, Villa held on to get again to successful methods after successive losses within the league and FA Cup semi-final had threatened to derail their marketing campaign, whereas Fulham’s already-slim possibilities of European soccer subsequent season are actually hanging by a thread.
