Aston Villa beat Liverpool 4-2 at Villa Park on Monday to qualify for the Champions League, with Ollie Watkins scoring twice and Morgan Rogers setting the tone with a brilliant curling opener after 42 minutes. John McGinn finished the rout from the edge of the box, while Virgil van Dijk’s stoppage-time header came too late to change the mood inside a ground already celebrating.
The result was the kind of night Villa have needed for much of the second half of the season. After an indifferent run since the turn of the year, they delivered against a Liverpool side that looked flat for long spells and whose players sloped off the pitch after full time. Joe Gomez had the visitors’ first effort, sending it over the bar, and Cody Gakpo later saw a shot saved after Emiliano Martínez spilled Ryan Gravenberch’s strike, but Liverpool never turned that spell into control.
Villa’s opener came from a training-ground corner routine, the sort of detail that mattered in a match where set pieces again exposed Liverpool. The visitors have now conceded a league-high 20 goals from set pieces this season, and Villa repeatedly found space and belief around the box. Even after the restart, when Liverpool improved, Emery’s side stayed in command and Watkins’ second goal pushed the match beyond reach before McGinn added the fourth.
The game also carried another layer of weight because it came before Villa’s Europa League final in Istanbul on Wednesday. Emery, left off the Premier League’s six-strong manager of the season shortlist, greeted the final whistle by shouting, “Up the Villa!” and, “We’re going to Istanbul!” to supporters who had every reason to believe their team is peaking at the right moment.
For Liverpool, the defeat was another awkward mark in Arne Slot’s meek title defence, but Villa were the story of the night. Many travelling supporters had already left before Van Dijk’s second headed goal in stoppage time, and by then the result had already spoken for itself: Villa are back in Europe’s top competition, and they go to Istanbul with momentum and belief.
