Villa and Forest win in Europa League as Roma thrash Celtic

Aston Villa beat Basel 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday to secure their eighth successive win, while Nottingham Forest won at Utrecht as Celtic suffered a heavy home defeat by Roma.

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Evann Guessand struck the opener for Villa in Switzerland but the hosts hit back when Flavius Daniliuc glanced Xherdan Shaqiri's flighted free-kick past a hesitant Marco Bizot.

Youri Tielemans steered in the winner from just outside the area early in the second half as Unai Emery’s side picked up their fifth victory in six league phase games this season. They have won 14 of their last 16 matches in all competitions.

“I am happy and we knew before the match the difficulties we were facing today,” Emery told TNT Sports. “After the last matches, a lot of wars. Brilliant wars for us, after our victory against Arsenal, it is not easy to recover.

“The last 10 minutes they were close to drawing but I am happy with how we got this victory. It is difficult to beat them here.”

Villa sit on 15 points and are third in the Europa League standings, guaranteed of at least a playoff place. They trail leaders Lyon and Midtjylland only on goal difference.

“Where we are now is very good. We have two more games. Two tough games. We just want to win both games and see where we are at,” said Tielemans.