Villa show FIGHTING spirit in 'friendly' loss

Villa stepped up their preparations for the new campaign on Saturday night with their seventh and penultimate friendly of the summer, away to Marseille.

- By JOHN TOWNLEY

VILLA stepped up their preparations for the new campaign on Saturday night with their seventh and penultimate friendly of the summer, away to Marseille.

Unai Emery’s side lost 3-1, though half of his first-team squad did not feature, with another fixture against Villarreal at the Estadi de la Ceramica scheduled for last night.

Mason Greenwood capitalised on an early Tyrone Mings mistake to open the scoring, before John McGinn equalised in the eighth minute. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then came off the bench to score a quickfire double, sealing victory for Marseille.

Here are the talking points...

It was far from a ‘friendly’

Emery will be frustrated by his side's second half display - they were second best - but ultimately relieved to leave France without any injuries.

The second half saw tempers flare as Marseille players flew into unnecessary tackles, energising the 67,000 crowd. Alex Moreno suffered a reckless sliding challenge from CJ Egan-Riley late on - an incident that pushed the match closer to boiling point.

Anew summer signing, Egan-Riley appeared eager to make an impression on the home crowd, but in doing so left his mark on Villa's left-back.