Aston Villa scored three goals in the first half and then held on to beat Club Brugge 3-2 in their UEFA Champions League opener in Belgium on Tuesday.
The English club, last season’s Europa League winners, went into the continental tie having not registered a goal in their first three Premier League fixtures of the campaign.
Villa captain John McGinn gave his team the lead after just 11 minutes, expertly side-footing a first-time shot into the bottom left corner after being set up by Pau Torres’ driving run out of defence.
The home side found the equaliser in the 19th minute when Hugo Vetlesen found the back of the net but Emiliano Buendia restored the English side’s lead just three minutes later.
Villa then scored a third goal in a breathless first half as striker Nicolas Jackson ran in behind to try and latch onto Torres’ long ball, beating goalkeeper Yann Sommer to the ball and slotting into an empty net for his first goal since joining in a club-record £65m move.
Brugge pulled one back just after the hour mark through Nicolo Tresoldi’s penalty, awarded for handball on Aaron Wan-Bissaka after the referee was sent to the VAR monitor.
Villa had to withstand a heavy onslaught from the home team in the closing stages but held on for what would no doubt be a morale-boosting victory.
