Aston Villa 4-0 Bologna (agg: 7-1) highlights: Villans cruise into Europa League semi-finals

Ollie Watkins' third goal of the tie set Aston Villa on their way to an emphatic victory over Bologna, sealing their place in the Europa League semi-finals.

Match in brief: Villa cruise to semi-finals

Bologna had won all five of their away matches in this season's competition and arrived intent on extending that record with a memorable comeback.

Ollie Watkins soon stifled the Italian side's ambitions by putting Villa 4-1 ahead on aggregate, slotting in from Morgan Rogers' pass for his third goal of the tie.

Federico Ravaglia then dived to tip Rogers' penalty away, only for the visiting goalkeeper to twice be beaten by fierce strikes from Emiliano Buendía and Rogers at his right-hand post.

A less eventful second half ensued, Riccardo Orsolini having a shot deflected behind after the visitors made a triple substitution at half-time.

Martínez also plunged to save a Nikola Moro strike before Ezri Konsa struck from inside the box with four minutes remaining as his side set up an all-English tie against Nottingham Forest.

Line-ups

Villa: Martínez, Cash, Konsa, Pau Torres, Digne; McGinn (Bailey 64), Onana (Bogarde 78), Tielemans (Douglas Luis 78), Buendía; Watkins (Abraham 64), Rogers (Sancho 74)

Bologna: Ravaglia, João Mário (Zortea 46), Vitík, Casale (Heggem 82), Miranda; Moro, Freuler (Sohm 46), Ferguson; Bernardeschi (Orsolini 46), Castro (Odgaard 78), Rowe

Ezri Konsa scores his second goal of the tie, having headed Villa in front in the first legAFP via Getty Images

Faye Hackwell, reporting from Villa Park

A third semi-final in three seasons for Unai Emery's side as Villa cruise into the last four. The majority of their victories this campaign have been by narrow margins, but tonight they found their groove early on and the goals flowed then they comfortably saw out the game. Bologna will be disappointed not to have posed more of a challenge tonight after their strong showing last week, but can look back on their journey to the quarter-finals with pride — their thrilling round of 16 success in extra time against Roma one of many highlights.

Reaction

Unai Emery, Aston Villa head coach: "We were organised and tried to impose our ideas and style, which is not easy against Bologna. We are so happy with the way we are performing in this competition... [tonight] was fantastic. Now we will play in a semi-final and it will be very difficult against Nottingham Forest."

Ollie Watkins, Aston Villa striker: "It's an amazing achievement for us to progress to the semi-finals and to go one step further than last year in the Champions League. We're really enjoying being in this competition and this is where we want to be. We've played [Forest] twice already this season [3-1 home win and 1-1 away draw] and it's not been easy, but we focus on each game and enjoy the process."

Lewis Ferguson, Bologna midfielder: "I don't think we showed a good account of ourselves at all. We got it all wrong in the first half. Aston Villa are a top side and we knew that; the better team won on the night. They made it an absolute mountain to climb in the first half. I'm really proud to captain this team in a European competition and go towards the latter stages of it. We gave it our best shot. The only team we lost to in the whole competition was Aston Villa."

Jonathan Rowe, Bologna winger: "We were unfortunate in the first leg but it was disappointing to go out like this. We understand Villa are a strong side but it doesn't mean that we can't give our all and try to be at our best. I've learnt a lot from my team-mates, the coach and from the whole experience of playing in different stadiums and against teams from other countries. I'm going to try to take this loss on board and see what I can learn from it."

Key stats

• Villa have won all four of their European meetings with Bologna, including two previous encounters in Birmingham: 2-0 in the 2024/25 Champions League league phase and 1-0 on Matchday 1 of this season’s Europa League.
• The English side are unbeaten in six matches against Italian opposition (W5 D1).
• The Villans have won two and lost two of their four European two‑legged ties against Italian clubs; this is their first victory since a penalty shoot‑out win over Inter in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup first round.
• This was Villa's first quarter‑final in the Europa League era. They reached the last eight twice in the UEFA Cup, losing 4-3 on aggregate to Barcelona in 1977/78 and on away goals against Atlético de Madrid in 1997/98.
• Unai Emery's side have won 15 of their last 17 European matches (L2), including their most recent nine — the longest winning streak in the club's history.
• Seventeen of their last 19 European home matches have ended in Villa victories (D1 L1), including the last nine.
• Bologna's only previous two‑legged tie against an English club was a 5–3 aggregate defeat by Fulham in the 2002 Intertoto Cup final.
• This was Bologna’s first quarter‑final in the Europa League era – their debut season in the competition. They previously reached the last eight twice in the UEFA Cup, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Sporting CP in 1990/91 and beating Lyon 3-2 on aggregate in 1998/99.
• Bologna have lost only three of their last 17 European matches (W8 D6), all against Villa.
• They had won both European ties in which they trailed by two goals or more after the first leg — both in the 1990/91 UEFA Cup, overturning a 3-1 loss to beat Hearts 4-3 on aggregate in the second round and in the third round recovering from a 3-0 defeat to Admira Wacker before progressing on penalties after levelling the tie 3-3.
  

  What's next?

  Aston Villa meet Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals.