“We’ve conquered before, we’re prepared for more,” read the pre-match display held up by the Holte End. Even if few would really be ready for a full-on repeat of 1982, when Aston Villa conquered Europe, the current vintage are doing an outwards impression of Champions League contenders. The small blot here was that they would have ended the night top of the 36-team table until Peter Christiansen, with an acrobatic volley awarded by the video assistant referee, scored a consolation for Viking that the Norwegian champions’ second-half display merited.
By then Ross Barkley and Emiliano Buendía had, in a first half of near-embarrassing dominance from Villa, virtually guaranteed the result before Henrik Heggheim’s own goal had Villa briefly looking down on the entire continent.
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