Aston Villa 1-3 FC Barcelona U19: Quarterfinals bound!

Quarterfinal place assured for the FC Barcelona U19s in the UEFA Youth League, as Juliano Belletti's side defeated Aston Villa 1-3 at Villa Park in single leg match to go through to the round before the Final Four.

A great collective performance – with goals by Quim Junyent, Arnau Pradas, and Jan Virgili – sees the blaugranes into the UEFA Youth League quarterfinals for the first time since the 2018/19 season. Their next opponent is either Sporting Clube de Portugal or Stuttgart.

Ahead at the break

Barça got their just rewards for a great first half. A dominating and effective performance by the blaugranes meant they were ahead at half-time. It didn't take long either, as they were 0-2 up by the 20th minute.

Quim Junyent opened the scoring, running diagonally into the area before firing past Aston Villa's keeper (0-1, min 15). Arnau Pradas soon followed up with the second, receiving the ball in space on the counter, before cutting inside to score (0-2, min 20).

Blaugrana qualification confirmed

Aston Villa tried to come back into the game, and they managed to score from the penalty spot after Jimoh-Aloba was infringed, Borland reducing the lead (1-2, min 56). What's more, the English side almost got a second, but Yaakobishvili came out excellently to smother at Burrowes' feet (min 61).

Barça gradually got back into the game to dominate again, and were rewarded by Jan Virgili pressing and capitalising on an error by Proctor to score easily, paving the way to the win (1-3, min 78).

The victory sees Barça in the quarterfinals, and the next game also one leg and away, with a place in the Final Four at stake.

MATCH STATS

ASTON VILLA 1
FC BARCELONA U19 3

Aston Villa: Proctor, Rowe, Fortes (Bloomfield, min 82), Katsukunya, Routh, Hemmings (Lynskey, min 82), Pavey (Cotcher, min 46), Borland, Burrowes, Jimoh-Aloba (Mulley, min 89), Pierre (Omar Khedr, min 72). 

FC Barcelona U19: Yaakobishvili, Xavi Espart, Eman Kospo, Cuenca, Walton, Brian Fariñas, Jan Virgili, Pedro Rodríguez (Tomás Marqués, min 69), Hugo Alba (Ibrahim Diarra, min 80), Quim Junyent (Juan Hernández, min 80), Arnau Pradas (Dani Ferrer, min 89). 

Goals: 0-1 Quim Junyent (min 15), 0-2 Arnau Pradas (min 16), 1-2 Borland (penalty, min 56), 1-3 Jan Virgili (min 79). 

Referee: Ante Čulina. Yellow cards for Fortes, Hemmings, Burrowes, and Cotcher from Aston Villa, and Walton from FC Barcelona U19s.