Ollie Watkins double helps Aston Villa book Champions League spot

By Jonathan Veal, Press Association

Aston Villa enjoyed a perfect send off ahead of the Europa League final as a 4-2 win over Liverpool booked their place in next season’s Champions League and left the Reds still sweating over their qualification.

Ollie Watkins’ double, which will surely secure his place in England’s World Cup squad, and classy goals from Morgan Rogers and John McGinn guaranteed Unai Emery’s men will finish in the top five of the Premier League with a game to spare.

They can now head to Istanbul for Wednesday’s European final against Freiburg knowing their domestic ambitions have been achieved, allowing them to put their full focus on winning a first continental trophy in 44 years.

It is another fine achievement for Villa, whose progress under Emery shows no signs of stopping and they will play in the premier European competition for the second time in three years.

Whether Liverpool will also be there is undecided as defeat leaves them looking over their shoulder, with Bournemouth and Brentford still able to overtake them.

Virgil van Dijk scored with two headers, but this was another directionless performance from the Reds as the pressure grew on Arne Slot, who presided over an alarming 12th defeat of the season.

Villa may have their biggest one-off game since 1982 on Wednesday, but Emery has always maintained the Premier League is his priority and his team selection suggested as much as they looked to get the job done.

The home side clearly did not have their mind in Istanbul as they began brightly.

Watkins was a livewire and had a real sight of goal in the eighth minute.

He ran the channel, went past Van Dijk as if he was not there, but skewed his shot over the crossbar from an inviting position.

For all of Villa’s early domination, they nearly fell behind in the 27th minute as Emiliano Martinez got away with a big error when he spilled Ryan Gravenberch’s shot and Cody Gakpo converted the rebound, but he was offside.

The hosts took the lead in the 42nd minute.

It was a beautifully worked corner routine as Lucas Digne and John McGinn combined to tee up Rogers, who curled home from inside the area.

Liverpool began the second half strongly and found an equaliser in the 52nd minute as Van Dijk was left unmarked at the far post from Szoboszlai’s free-kick and he guided a header into the far corner.

The Reds were enjoying their best spell of the match and were inches from going in front as Rio Ngumoha cut inside and saw a low effort crash into the post, with Gakpo unable to control the rebound.

Villa were on the rack but needed just five minutes to restore their lead as Szoboszlai suffered a fatal loss of footing.

He slipped receiving a throw-in in the left-back position, which allowed Rogers to tee up Watkins to sweep home from eight yards.

He should have had a second immediately from kick-off as Villa won back possession and the striker was in on goal but Giorgi Mamardashvili did well to get out and block the shot.

Emiliano Buendia hit the crossbar with a flighted effort as Villa continued to push and they found their third goal in the 73rd minute.

Mamardashvili spilled Youri Tielemans’ shot and after he recovered to save Pau Torres’ effort, Watkins was on hand to poke home from close range.

McGinn turned it into a party atmosphere with a trademark curled effort into the top corner from the edge of the area.

Van Dijk’s late header could not dampen the celebrations as Villa thoughts turn to Istanbul.