Villa spirit hailed as Tielemans shines during statement win in Europe

ASTON Villa got the job done in Switzerland on Thursday night, beating FC Basel 2-1 at St. Jakob-Park.

- By JOHN TOWNLEY

Evann Guessand opened the scoring in the 12th minute as he finished inside the box after Basel failed to clear a corner.

Flavius Daniliuc equalised for the hosts before the break, turning in Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick, but Youri Tielemans scored the winning goal following his introduction after the break. Emi Buendia assisted the Belgian, rolling the ball for him to sweep past Marwin Hitz from the edge of the box.

Emery hails Villa spirit after Arsenal result

Emery handed his players a couple of days off after the Arsenal match, not because they had won, but due to the busy schedule.

But the emotions of Saturday afternoon with Emi Buendia sending Villa Park into raptures - meant that whatever happened in Basel on Thursday would be something of a comedown.

Villa were dominant for the first 25 minutes and managed to take the lead, but they failed to capitalise on that advantage.

Basel came back into the game without banging the door down, even though they had a goal chalked off for offside.

What was particularly frustrating about the goal Villa conceded was that it came soon after Emery’s side had been warned against being passive in their defending.

The nature of Daniliuc’s goal is not one they'll remember with any fondness: Shaqiri simply clipped the ball into the box for his teammate to guide past Marco Bizot.