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.