Aston Villa complete comeback to beat AZ Alkmaar 2-1 in Europa Conference League

Post-match reaction from Aston Villa 2-1 AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Europa Conference League at Villa Park.

Transcript

00:00 Aston Villa 2, Ezzed Alkmaar 1. It's now three wins out of four in the Europa

00:05 Conference League for Unai Emery's men. Five out of six if you include the games

00:09 against Hibernian in the playoff round but three out of four in the Europa

00:12 Conference League proper. It wasn't easy though. Ezzed Alkmaar taking the lead

00:15 early in the first half. Pavlidis getting the goal finally getting the

00:18 better of Emi Martinez after having about three or four saves, a shot saved

00:23 sorry. It was a fantastic finish to be fair to him. He was running through on goal

00:27 beating Villas off sidetrack which was otherwise very good tonight and taking

00:31 it over Martinez and they look quite good actually the away side after that

00:35 point pressing on for a second goal. But Villa making some changes and they got

00:40 their first goal. Diego Carlos getting his first goal for the

00:44 club equalising in a 60th minute. Bubuka Kamara had an absolute howler of a

00:49 missed chance just a minute earlier. Went to it at the far post just a few yards out

00:53 and completely fluffed his lines. Flexed it over though for a corner and Leon

00:57 Bailey crossed it in and Diego Carlos nodded it in across goal, glanced it, made

01:02 it look effortless to send Villa Park wild for 1-1. It wasn't the job done

01:06 though. Unai Emery turning to his bench making some substitutions. Douglas

01:10 Luiz as he always does here at Villa Park taking control of the midfield and

01:14 he put in a fantastic ball for Oli Watkins who was otherwise quite quiet on

01:18 the night. A little dinked through ball, a cross through ball should I say

01:22 through the centre and Watkins a little bit like Carlos glanced the ball into

01:27 the far corner. I should say as well that Clement Longley in just a second or

01:31 third minute also scored a header but that one was ruled out for offside. But

01:35 Watkins, the man decisive, quite often does this actually. He goes missing in

01:39 games and then just pops up at the vital moment to get Villa a winner and he's

01:42 done that again. Nine points now out of 12. Ligia Warsaw are still top of the

01:47 group due to a better record against Villa. It's head-to-head rather than

01:51 goal difference but an opportunity in the next Europa Conference League game

01:55 for Villa at home here against Ligia Warsaw to get that advantage and go top

01:59 of the group. But for now Unai Emery's team a fantastic turnaround and great

02:03 character shown. It is Aston Villa 2, Eze Dalmat 1.