Emiliano Martinez visibly takes pleasure in tormenting French supporters. Remembered in the final of the 2022 World Cup, the Argentinian goalkeeper shone during Aston Villa’s success on home turf, against Lille (2-1), in the quarter-final first leg of the Europa Conference League (C4) , this Thursday evening.
Assumed favorites for the final victory in C4, the English relied on the realism of their trigger Ollie Watkins (19 goals now, 11 assists) and the repeated saves of their truculent goalkeeper to take a slight advantage before their trip to France. But Lille showed a conquering face which allows them to continue to believe in it before the return leg, in a week.
The match: 2-1
Because, if Watkins’ opening score with a header from a corner arrived very quickly (13th), the Northerners were the first to shine. Jonathan David took advantage of an error by former Nantes player Diego Carlos to sow discord in the Villa defense (5th). In vain. The Canadian found Pau Torres in his path, while his teammates Edon Zhegrova (24th), Bafodé Diakité (31st) and Hakon Haraldsson (41st) all stumbled on the long arms deployed by the pelican Martinez.
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Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made six saves against Lille this Thursday evening.
His counterpart Lucas Chevalier also stood out after the locker room against Leon Bailey (49th), but was surprised on his right by the nice strike from John McGinn (2-0, 56th) from a well-worked corner. A cruel scenario further reinforced by the first reduction in the gap refused to Lille at the end of a long VAR intervention. Gabriel Gudmundsson finally caught Martinez with a volley from a cross from Tiago Santos (63rd), before being flagged offside.
The fact of the match: Diakité finally rewarded LOSC
Still present to deflect Gudmundsson’s head for a corner, then lucky to see the ball move away from his goal on a second attempt from Haraldsson which he had difficulty catching (72nd), Martinez abdicated on another shot helmet. A late reward from Diakité, who rose higher than everyone at the near post on a corner hit by Angel Gomes (2-1, 84th).
Having just recovered from a hamstring injury, the English playmaker made a promising entry for the last quarter of an hour of play. The Turk Yusuf Yazici, author of a curling shot which grazed the right post of Martinez (90th+1), also. Two additional reasons for hope for Lille, one week away from a return leg that is anything but lost in advance.
