soccer

📸 Lucky boy? Aston Villa star avoids red card in Europa League final

Yahoo Sports

Aston Villa lead the Europa League final 2-0 at half-time courtesy of stunning strikes from Youri Tielemans and Emi Buendía. That being said, Unai Emery's side are arguably lucky to still have 11 p...

📸 Lucky boy? Aston Villa star avoids red card in Europa League final Aston Villa lead the Europa League final 2-0 at half-time courtesy of stunning strikes from Youri Tielemans and Emi Buendía. That being said, Unai Emery's side are arguably lucky to still have 11 players on the pitch after a challenge midway through the first half from defender Matty Cash.

He caught Freiburg's Vincenzo Grifo on the calf and was shown a yellow card by the referee. It wasn't clear whether VAR checked the tackle, but it was certainly high and reckless from Cash. But, fortunately for Villa, he stayed on the pitch and they went on to score two in quick succession to put them in control in Istanbul before half-time.

Tielemans broke the deadlock with a stunning volley before Buendía curled one into the top corner from the edge of the box. To put it bluntly, there was nothing lucky about those goals!