It was never going to be a straightforward evening in Birmingham when Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived for a politically charged encounter that had the government wading incompetently and cluelessly into, in the apparent belief that this was the first and only time away fans had been barred from attending a football match.
Absolutely nothing Aston Villa could do about that beyond take care of business on the field, and on the field this was the sort of game you’re going to get in any successful run at Europe’s second competition. Not particularly pretty, almost entirely unmemorable, but with a hugely satisfactory result and enough genuinely encouraging moments to mean you leave the game feeling better about prospects than you came into it.
Plenty of those positives here. The return from injury off the substitutes’ bench of Youri Tielemans with an enjoyably eye-catching cameo was high on that list ahead of a busy period. There’s never anything not to like about a clean sheet, and Emi Martinez did have to get his gloves dirty a few times while, to nobody’s great surprise, showing no indication that his latest Yet Another Rare Mistake against Liverpool had done anything to dent that bulletproof self-confidence of his.
Ian Maatsen’s goal at the end of an awkward and stuttering first-half Villa performance was a clear standout, a lovely crisp and, it must be said, atypical move based on what had gone before ending with a physics-bending finish off the crossbar from a seemingly impossible angle.
Even the second goal, from a softly awarded penalty after Ezri Konsa tripped over himself as much as his opponent, was a significant moment. It was Villa’s third penalty of the season, a third different taker, and a first scorer. What Ollie Watkins and Emi Buendia had been unable to do, Donyell Malen achieved with something approaching aplomb as he unerringly located the bottom corner with minimal fuss.
Maccabi will rue the missed chances at 0-0 and 1-0 but once Villa took control they never looked likely to relinquish it, seeing out the game comfortably enough and even able to conserve some energy for the greater challenges ahead. Again, it might not be the stuff to stir the loins, but there really is an awful lot to be said for getting through these Thursday nights in this kind of fashion at this time of the year.
If Villa were feeling greedy, they might have liked a goal for Ollie Watkins just to tick another box, but overall this felt very much like a more seasoned European team than Villa are getting the j0b done.
What Villa might lack in European know-how is, of course, mitigated to a large extent by the presence of Europa League guru Unai Emery on the bench. There is no manager who knows better how to manoeuvre his way through this tournament and he’s got Villa nicely placed at home and abroad now after a sticky old start to the season.
No surprise and no coincidence that it was the start of the Europa League campaign where Villa’s season began to turn.
There is, inevitably, pressure on Villa in this competition. It is just so very obviously a wonderful opportunity to end a farcical trophy drought and the sight of two objectively more stupid English teams getting to the final last year only heightens that sense.
This win, Villa’s third in four in this competition, lifts them into that all-important top eight where both Spurs and Man United managed to position themselves last season to keep the workload to a minimum.
Villa might not have the luxury those two had last year of being able to just completely sack off the Premier League by February, but the sight of a halfway-stage league table where the only teams above Villa are now Midtjylland, Freiburg, Ferencvaros, Celta Vigo and Braga is a clear indicator of just how good a chance this is.
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