Barcelona beat Aston Villa 3-0 at the Camp Nou in the UEFA Champions League, as Raphinha scored a second-half double to end Unai Emery’s side’s three-game winning run in the competition.
Emery returned to his homeland on his 55th birthday. His team had been in good form, losing just one of their previous nine matches, but they were undone in the driving Catalan rain.
The hosts have been prolific this season, averaging four goals a game, and they were ahead within seven minutes. Joao Gomes played a blind pass across his own penalty area to Lamine Yamal, who curled his shot into the far corner for his 13th goal of the campaign. He also has 11 assists this season.
Emery made several changes. Joao Gomes and Emi Buendia returned to the Barcelona side, while Leon Goretzka and Alysson dropped to the bench. England forward Anthony Gordon was recalled to the Villa line-up.
Raphinha made Villa’s first visit to the Camp Nou in 46 years a miserable one. He struck twice early in the second half, at the 52nd and 64th minutes, to end any hopes the visitors had of getting back into the contest. Hansi Flick’s side moved above Villa into second place in the table.
Key moments from the Camp Nou
7: GOAL! Suzuki went short from the goal kick, and Joao Gomes played a blind pass across his own penalty area. It fell straight to Lamine Yamal, who curled his shot into the far corner with ease.
19: CHANCE! Jackson broke down the right and found Manzambi, but he mishit the sweeping shot and it went wide.
20: HUGE CHANCE! Jackson timed his run perfectly and was played through by Manzambi, but Garcia poked the ball clear after meeting the striker outside the penalty area.
26: CHANCE! Suzuki played a dangerous pass to Joao Gomes, and Barcelona pounced. The Villa goalkeeper was able to beat Gordon’s shot, though.
52: GOAL! Raphinha fired a shot on goal from just inside the area. A big deflection sent it trickling into the back of the net after he wrong-footed Suzuki.
64: GOAL! Cancelo drove down the left and played the cross with the outside of his boot into the box. It bent around the defence and fell perfectly into Raphinha’s path, and he tapped it home with ease.
69: POST! Goretzka met the corner and glanced a header towards goal, but it grazed the post. Jackson was there but did not gamble on tapping it in.
Merson: Villa will be rueing missed first-half chances
Paul Merson said there was not much difference between the sides in the first half. “They [Villa] shot themselves in the foot early doors. After that, they had good chances to score and should have scored at least one of them.”
He added: “Come out second half and Barcelona were different class, by far the better team. Villa really never looked like getting back into it second half.”
Merson concluded: “So a solid performance, but they’ll be rueing their chances in the first half. Villa, second half, never in the game. It was a bit of a free swing tonight. And as I said, in the first half they’ve done well, second half not good enough.”
What the manager said
Emery said: “The result is not good. A lot of things were positive but it was not enough to get the result.”
He continued: “How we are building the team is clear in 90 minutes. We have young players, talented players and past players but we must try and get our structure.”
“We made mistakes but we overcame these mistakes. Today, more or less, after the mistake we made, we were creating chances and facing them.”
“With the chances we had in the first half, maybe it would be different, but we were not clinical. We had chances to score and did not score.”
“We have nine points because we did good work. We should be realistic but, at the same time, feel good.”
“We need experiences for the players. Today was very important. To use it to get better.”
He concluded: “Good experience, bad result. At this level, you must be ruthless and avoid mistakes.”
The numbers from Villa’s loss in Barcelona
Aston Villa suffered their joint-heaviest defeat in major European competition. They had also lost by three goals to Royal Antwerp in September 1975 (1-4) and to Internazionale in November 1990 (0-3), both in the UEFA Cup.
No Premier League side has committed more errors leading to goals in all competitions this season than Aston Villa, who have seven, level with Sunderland.
John McGinn made his 38th appearance for Aston Villa in major European competition, the outright most for the club.