Aston Villa skipper John McGinn gave his verdict after the 2-1 Europa League defeat at Go Ahead Eagles
Aston Villa captain John McGinn
Aston Villa captain John McGinn(Image: Getty Images)
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John McGinn admitted that Aston Villa handed Go Ahead Eagles “life from nowhere” to complete a shock comeback in Deventer last night.
Unai Emery’s side took the lead inside the first four minutes, with Evann Guessand scoring his first goal for the club by converting Jadon Sancho’s cross, which goalkeeper Jari De Busser failed to gather.
Chances came and went for Ollie Watkins, Guessand, and Emi Buendia, before Mathis Suray equalised just before half-time.
Mats Deijl then completed the comeback for Go Ahead Eagles on the hour mark, running in behind the Villa defence and beating Emi Martinez inside the box.
Emi Buendia had a chance from the penalty spot to salvage a point, but he blasted his spot kick over the bar.
“We never took our chances in the first half. They started strong in the first few minutes, but we got the goal and we had chances to kill the game off,” McGinn said after full-time.
“No matter who you play against, if you don’t take your chances in those moments, you’ll get punished. Tonight, we got punished.
“The disappointing goal for us was especially the first.
“I’ve not seen the second one back, but we worked on the first one, we knew what they were trying to do, and we didn’t adapt.
“That goal is on us as players, and we can’t concede like that when we are in control of the game. We had chances to go two or three up, but we also had a chance to defend better, and we didn’t.
“When you give a team that is really passionate and up for it at home — they’ve not played in Europe for a while — and you give them some motivation and a bit of life, you get punished. Tonight, we gave them life from nowhere, and that’s why we have been beaten.”
Villa were accused by some of being complacent on the night, and that view was put to McGinn.
“I’m not sure about complacency, but the goal was definitely a moment of sloppiness and switching off,” the Villa skipper conceded. “From there, we didn’t get the same control in the game as we did have, so overall, it was a really frustrating and disappointing night.
“We obviously had the chance, when we got the penalty, to take a point and move on, but we have five games to go to fix it and make sure that we are in that top eight.
“We are disappointed in there [dressing room], but we have a big game on Sunday. We have been in great form in the league, so we need to carry that on, and there’s no tougher test than Man City. We will be disappointed tonight, and we will talk about it today and tomorrow, but after that, we will park it.”
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