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Aston Villa reach Conference League semi-finals after penalty shootouts win at Lille

By Eurosport
Football News Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa reacts after saving the first penalty by Nabil Bentaleb of Lille OSC not pictured in the penalty shoot out during the UEFA Europa Conference League 202324 Quarter-final.Image credit: Getty Images
APR 18, 2024 LISTEN
Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa reacts after saving the first penalty by Nabil Bentaleb of Lille OSC (not pictured) in the penalty shoot out during the UEFA Europa Conference League 2023/24 Quarter-final. Image credit: Getty Images

Aston Villa are through to a major European semi-final for the first time since 1982 after squeezing past Lille on penalties in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Emi Martinez - booed from the outset in northern France after his penalty heroics and histrionics in the 2022 World Cup final - saved two penalties and was shown two yellow cards on the night he proved to be Villa's saviour.

Their other saviour was Matty Cash, who scored a goal from nothing in the 87th minute to send the tie to extra time, capitalising on a goalkeeping error.

Lille's Yusuf Yazici had opened the scoring with a fine first-time finish inside 15 minutes to make it 2-2 on aggregate and captain Benjamin Andre gave them the lead from a corner.

Yet Lille could not hold onto that lead and it was Andre who failed to score the final penalty of a dramatic shoot-out which also saw Martinez shown a yellow card for taunting the crowd, but not a red, as his earlier booking for time-wasting did not carry over to penalties.

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