Ratings & Reactions: Villa v AZ Alkmaar

[Newry_Villan]

Mid November collapse averted until the next game. ffs.

[UpTheVilla26]

Gave Boubs MOTM I thought he was superb.

Diego and Tielemans also had very encouraging performances. 

That pass from Dougie was sublime & great finish from Ollie. 

McGinn was very quiet and I was frustrated with Bailey & Diaby, that final pass didn't work all night. 

Should see us through that result, not at our best but a good sign to grab the win. 

[Herman22]

I thought that was a good performance. It’s hard to play against a team that just sit back and refuse to come out. 

We beat Warsaw in 3 weeks we top the group! 

[HKP90]

Good character coming back in that one.

I voted Digne motm. Put a proper shift in.

Referee/VAR is just......broken. Giving their goal was an utterly appalling decision that could have really shafted our European campaign.

Overall we were far from our best, especially in the final third, but got the job done by relying on our big names. Perhaps it shows that we still need to strengthen our squad depth a bit.

Shout outs to Youri, and Dougie of course.

[MaVilla]

5 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

We've essentially qualified now which is good

how do you figure that?

whoever finishes second in the group, has to go in to a play off with a team dropping from the Europa league, the winner of that qualifies for the knockout stages.

[ender4]

Villa have won 15 of their last 16 games at home since Feb.  
 

The one game we lost was against bloody Everton.

[brummybloke]

That's 2 games in a row now of under performing and slow build up and causing our own problems.

If we are winning, fine emi can hold onto the ball for 30 seconds casually walking up the pitch, when we are not, play it out quicker.

Same goes with the defence, we get a quick attack on and then it goes all the way back.

Having possession is the main aim but when you don't do anything with it except put yourself in trouble, it becomes slightly pointless.

Diaby was poor tonight and Bailey was away Bailey from 15th minute until he was taken off.

Zaniolo came on and reminded me of a kid getting on the pitch, full of energy but nothing really stuck or came off.

When we changed tempo and played at normal pace rather than super slow mo we looked half decent until it went to Bailey or diaby.

Will take a win all day long but we need to be doing things that bit faster progressing it from the back.

The Greek lad reminds me of a ronny rosenthal type forward. Doesn't look much of a physical specimen but can put the ball in the net.

Oh and the ref was terrible tonight, at least 1 goal and 1 penalty not given, gave us a corner which luckily we scored from which wasnt a corner and ignored 4 or 5 clear bookings including 3 in a row in the space of 2 minutes.

The goal after 2 mins and the penalty after 6 or 7 minutes and the game is completely different.

Edited November 9, 2023 by brummybloke

[ender4]

6 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

We've essentially qualified now which is good

That’s nonsense. We are in second place. Only the top place directly goes through to the next round. 

We essentially have to beat Legia to qualify.  It’s a knockout game to the death.

[mottaloo]

6 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Not sure what game @troon_villan was watching to rate Emery's performance as Very Poor and the Ref's as Very good.

Someone's had a few stiff ones tonight!   

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by mottaloo

[ender4]

2 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

how do you figure that?

whoever finishes second in the group, has to go in to a play off with a team dropping from the Europa league, the winner of that qualifies for the knockout stages.

Yes. I don’t understand how so many Villa fans have watched our 4 games in the group stage so far and yet still don’t realise that only the top placed team goes through into the next round

[CosmicVillan]

4 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Referee/VAR is just......broken. Giving their goal was an utterly appalling decision that could have really shafted our European campaign.

Also the thing that winds me up although it's gone in our favour tonight is they never seem to look for incorrect awardings of goal kicks, corners and throw ins. Things that are easy to correct and not subjective but they don't interene.

[The_Steve]

Good to see Ollie calling out why our goal was disallowed and said the officials admitted to a mistake

[Newry_Villan]

I think we can all agree going by the analysis on TNT, no-one has a scooby doo what the offside rule is.

[allani]

8 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

I thought that was a good performance. It’s hard to play against a team that just sit back and refuse to come out. 

We beat Warsaw in 3 weeks we top the group! 

If we win 1-0 do we top the group courtesy of away goals against Legia or does it goes to goal difference across the whole group?

[Jas10]

 

[Demitri_C]

7 minutes ago, ender4 said:

That’s nonsense. We are in second place. Only the top place directly goes through to the next round. 

We essentially have to beat Legia to qualify.  It’s a knockout game to the death.

Its not nonsense.  We do qualify but have to play a extra game which gop game doesnt.

Its a wierd concept why 2nd gets a extra game is beyond me

[briny_ear]

Quite an uncomfortable match, we controlled play a lot but didn’t really have a cutting edge in front of goal.Watkins was weirdly out of it much of the game. Superb goal when it mattered though.

I had to watch the first half with no sound so I never heard an explanation of why Lenglet’s goal was disallowed. I watched it being replayed over and over but still couldn’t see what VAR did. Mystifying, and it would probably have made it a much easier match if it had stood.

Thought Digne, Tielemans, Carlos, Kamara and Lenglet had good games but, as I say, while the Conference starting XI play nice football, the route to goal tonight seemed unclear. The real difference was made by Douglas Luiz so he gets my MOTM. Excellent subs by Emery late in the game.

We know what we need to do against Legia on 30 Nov. Onwards and upwards!

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by briny_ear

[ender4]

Just now, Demitri_C said:

It’s not nonsense.  We do qualify but have to play a extra game which gop game doesnt.

No, we don’t qualify!!

We go into a play-off round against Europa League opponents. The winner of those 2 games, which could be someone like say Ajax or Brighton, qualify for the knockout stages. 

[villa4europe]

14 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

how do you figure that?

whoever finishes second in the group, has to go in to a play off with a team dropping from the Europa league, the winner of that qualifies for the knockout stages.

I get that it's an extra game that we'd like to avoid but at the same time looking at the teams 3rd placed in the EL groups it shouldn't be that big a deal

At least we've got the legia game at home too, we might not get a chance to play the u17s but we will get out of the group from here and we should be favourites 

[ender4]

Just now, villa4europe said:

I get that it's an extra game that we'd like to avoid but at the same time looking at the teams 3rd placed in the EL groups it shouldn't be that big a deal

At least we've got the legia game at home too, we might not get a chance to play the u17s but we will get out of the group from here and we should be favourites 

Oh yes I agree that we should have a good chance to get through that round.

Its just frustrating that people actually think second place in the group qualify into the knockout stages. 
 

It’s not even the fact that we might get knocked out, but 2 extra games in Feb could massively affect our PL form at that point.