Martínez the tainted hero as Aston Villa

Mohamed Magdy  

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Martínez the tainted hero as Aston Villa

Long before Emiliano Martínez was booked for time-wasting 39 minutes into this tempestuous knockout tie, there was an air of inevitability that the Aston Villa goalkeeper would prove the hero. So he was, with Martínez saving superbly from Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin André in a 4-3 penalty shootout victory after Matty Cash’s speculative late strike prevented Lille from advancing and took the game to extra time. Martínez was mobbed by his teammates, Morgan Rogers jumping for a piggyback as Villa’s players charged towards their delirious supporters stationed high in the stand at the opposite end. That, however, is only half of the story.

The whole game boiled down to a ludicrous crescendo, Martínez the centre of attention. Of course, he relished being the pantomime villain as he took on a French team for the first time since his World Cup heroics for Argentina in Qatar, when he thwarted Kingsley Coman from 12 yards, and he was up to his old tricks.