Off-pitch drama mars Villa's win over Maccabi

Aston Villa coasted to a 2-0 Europa League win over Maccabi Tel Aviv where all the attention was on what happened off the pitch.

- JONATHAN VEAL ALAN SMITH

The match became highly politicised after Maccabi’s fans were banned from attending in a decision — made by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group - which sparked debate on a parliamentary level, with prime minister Sir Kier Starmer calling it “wrong”.

A night that left so many fearing the worst ended with a straightforward win for Unai Emery’s team and, more importantly, no widespread disorder, as what appeared to be a successful security operation involving 700 police officers from 10 different forces led to just 11 arrests.