Aston Villa 3-1 Viking: Emery's side stay perfect in Champions League

Aston Villa extended their perfect start to the Champions League season with a confident 3-1 win over Viking at Villa Park.

Ross Barkley and Emiliano Buendia were both on target in the first half, with a Henrik Heggheim own goal helping to secure the points even before Peter Christiansen's late consolation.

Villa started brightly, with Nicolas Jackson seeing two headers saved in the opening seven minutes.

A deflected Alysson cross looped onto the crossbar just before Barkley broke the deadlock from a 23rd-minute corner as he rose highest to glance in Ibrahim Mbaye's set-piece.

Buendia then headed over from point-blank range and forced a smart stop out of Arild Ostbo before Alysson was clumsily felled in the box. A penalty was given following a VAR review, and Buendia finally hit the net from 12 yards out after 37 minutes.

Viking – who snatched a shock 3-3 draw with Bayern Munich last time out in the Champions League – looked stronger after the break, with Tobias Moi calling Zion Suzuki into action for the first time.

However, Villa put the game beyond their visitors in the 62nd minute, with Alysson once again seeing a cross deflected, though Heggheim inadvertently turned it into his own net.

Jesper Daland and Alejandro Garnacho went close at either end before Viking denied Villa a clean sheet as Christiansen finished Kristoffer Askildsen's cross first-time, with the goal standing after it was initially ruled out for offside.

Viking fail to breach the Villa Park fortress

Villa have won each of their last 12 major European home games, the joint-longest run by an English team this century (also Manchester City in 2022-2024 and Manchester United in 2006-2008).

It was another impressive showing by the Villans, who are the second-quickest team to record 20 wins in the European Cup/Champions League (30 matches), behind only Real Madrid (20 games).

They are also the first Europa League holders to win their first three games of a Champions League campaign since Man Utd in 2017-18.

Fresh off recording their biggest-ever European win last time out against Fenerbahce, Villa looked like they could run away with this one in the first half as well. They recorded 14 first-half shots, their joint-most in a game under Unai Emery (four other times).

Buendia became the first Villa player to score in four consecutive appearances in major European competition, while Barkley has now scored in three consecutive starts across all competitions for the first time since October 2020.

Villa ultimately dominated, having 21 shots worth 2.67 expected goals (xG) to Viking's 10 attempts (0.75 xG), and they will next put their 100% start to the test against LaLiga leaders Barcelona next month.