Resilient Villa dig in for their eighth win in a row

VILLA earned their eighth win in a row by beating FC Basel 2-1 in the Europa League at St. Jakob-Park last night.

- By JOHN TOWNLEY

Buendia at St. Jakob-Park

Evann Guessand opened the scoring early in the first half, but Villa were pegged back by Flavius Daniliuc before Youri Tielemans came off the bench to restore the lead.

The victory is Villa's fifth from six league phase matches, following previous wins over Bologna, Feyenoord, Maccabi Tel Aviv and BSC Young Boys.

Basel had won each of their last seven home Europa League games - previously the longest ongoing home winning run in the competition - and were unbeaten in 10 on home soil since a 2-1 defeat to Belenenses in October 2015.

Villa started the better of the two sides, despite Marco Bizot being the first goalkeeper called into action, and they forced an advantage in the 12th minute.