Passing into the mouth of danger once and being bitten early did not scare Villa away from their desire to play the same way. When passes were crisp and accurate, they broke through Monaco lines, with Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey all having shooting opportunities.

Aston Villa can today take a huge step closer to sealing automatic qualification for the knockout phase of the Champions League.Two victories would certainly be enough for Unai Emery’s side, albeit even that may not be needed if other results go their way.

Aston Villa suffered a blow to their hopes of securing a place in the top eight of the Champions League after losing 1-0 away at Monaco. Wilfried Singo’s header in the eighth minute proved the different at the Stade Louis II as an underwhelming Villa side lost for the second time of their European campaign.