John McGinn believes Jadon Sancho was Aston Villa's man of the match "by a mile" during their 2-0 victory over Lille in the second leg of their Europa League last 16 clash.

Sancho earned a rare start for Villa on Thursday, but put on an impressive showing by assisting McGinn for the opening goal following Emiliano Martinez's sensational pass. 

Leon Bailey wrapped up the tie five minutes from time to complete a 3-0 aggregate win for Unai Emery's side, who will square off against Serie A side Bologna in the last eight.

Sancho provided his first-ever assist in a Europa League game, on his 19th appearance in the competition (nine for Aston Villa, 10 for Manchester United).

The 25-year-old also finished with team-high totals for chances created (two) and dribbles (four), while only Morgan Rogers (20) played more passes in the final third than Sancho's 15, which earned him praise from Villa captain McGinn. 

"It was brilliant from Emi, but it highlights Jadon's performance, his best in a Villa shirt," McGinn told TNT Sport.

"He was man of the match by a mile. The manager was giving me grief before the game to make sure I got in the box, and he gave it to me.

"They defended very well in the first half, but we did go a bit more direct in the second half. The manager tweaked it, and it paid dividends."

Villa have reached the quarter-finals in major European competition in three consecutive seasons, as many times as they had reached at least this round in their previous 11 such campaigns combined.

In addition, the Villans are into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup/Europa League for the third time (after 1997-98 and 1977-78), though they have failed to reach the semi-finals in the previous two.

But they may fancy their chances with Emery at the helm, given his impressive record in this particular competition. 

Indeed, Emery has reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the eighth time. No other manager has done so more than five times.

Villa will be the fifth club the Spaniard will take into this round of the competition, after Valencia (twice), Sevilla (three times), Arsenal and Villarreal.

The Opta supercomputer has assigned Villa a 31% chance of lifting the title, higher than any of the teams left in the competition, though Sancho was quick to temper expectations.

"We have got to take it game by game, it is a tough competition, Europe is very different," Sancho said.

"We stuck to the game plan, we worked hard on and off the ball. If we keep [doing] this I'm sure we can go very far in this competition."