Aston Villa snatched a dramatic 3-2 victory over RB Leipzig thanks to a late deflected strike from substitute Ross Barkley. The win lifted Villa to third in the standings, while Leipzig, still without a point in the competition, saw their hopes of reaching the knockout stages come to an end.
Villa started strong, with John McGinn opening the scoring just three minutes in, calmly guiding the ball past Peter Gulacsi after an assist from Ollie Watkins. Villa looked in control until a rare error from Emiliano Martinez gifted Leipzig an equalizer. The Villa goalkeeper misjudged a bouncing ball in the box, allowing Lois Openda to round him and slot into an empty net.
Watkins thought he had restored Villa’s lead when he scored shortly after, but the goal was ruled out for offside. His involvement ended there as he was replaced by Jhon Duran at halftime. The Colombian quickly made an impact, curling a stunning long-range effort over Gulacsi to put Villa back in front.
Leipzig fought back with Christoph Baumgartner’s superb equalizer, which seemed destined to secure their first point of the campaign. However, Barkley’s introduction in the final stages proved decisive. His speculative shot from distance took a wicked deflection, wrong-footing Gulacsi and trickling into the net for the 85th-minute winner.
The crucial goal capped off a vital win for Villa, who have climbed from mid-table obscurity to third place in their group, firmly in contention for progression.
