Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran combine perfectly as Aston Villa secure 1-0 win over Bayern Munich | OneFootball

Unai Emery got his striker usage perfect as Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran starred to help Aston Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in the Champions League.

The biggest game to be played at Villa Park for a long time, the Villans welcomed six-time European champions Bayern Munich to their home. In the build up to the match, there were a few comparisons between Watkins and Harry Kane, the two English strikers on show for both sides. With Lee Carsley set to name his England squad on Thursday and two games against Greece and Finland coming up, Watkins will have hoped to stake his claim for the No.9 shirt.

Watkins had a goal disallowed in Aston Villa’s Champions League opener against Young Boys, but did record an assist. That has come as part of a good run for Watkins, who had started the 2024-25 season slowly.

In the Premier League, Watkins has scored four goals in his past three matches, and recorded a goal and an assist against Ipswich at the weekend. But this was a new test.

And he didn’t do his chances any harm. From the start of the game, Villa’s plan was clear. They were set up to defend, soak up the Bayern pressure and hit them on the counter. Watkins was key to this plan, especially as Bayern were playing such a high line.

Vincent Kompany is a very attacking manager, and stuck with a high line against Villa. There were a few occasions where Bayern’s deepest outfield player was inside the Villa half. Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand described the tactic as “borderline stupidity at times”, with Dayot Upamecano struggling.

Upamecano was often the deepest Bayern centre-back, and the man having to deal with Watkins. And it’s a battle he lost.

There were two occasions in the first half where Watkins had Upamecano beat, and you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching the same clip repeated. With Bayern pushing high up, Villa played a ball on the floor through to Watkins. The Englishman turned Upamecano on both occasions and was brought down twice.

The first occasion didn’t bring a free-kick and had Villa fans screaming for a foul and a red card. It looked nailed on, but replays did show that Watkins clipped his own legs before making a connection with Upamecano’s. The decision was right, but Upamecano and Kompany had been warned about what could happen.

But no lesson was learned, and in the 21st minute, Watkins turned Upamecano and was fouled. The Frenchman was booked, and it had been coming. From that free-kick, Villa did eventually score through Pau Torres. But the goal was disallowed by VAR due to an offside in the build up.

Things got so bad for Upamecano against Watkins that, midway through the second half, Kompany finally swapped his centre-backs around so Kim Min-jae would face the Englishman. Bayern were finally given their reprieve in the 70th minute when Watkins was replaced by Jhon Duran. Or were they…

In his 70 minutes on the pitch, Watkins won three fouls, more than any other player for either side. He won six of his seven duels, only failing in an aerial duel in the second half.

Watkins did only complete 41.2% of his passes, but that wasn’t his game. His main aim was to either hold the ball up, or run at the Bayern defence. He was there to get onto the end of balls, not set them up.

He did manage to get a shot off in the first half, though he missed the target with his header having won the aerial duel with Kim.

The man who replaced him, Duran, finished off the job. Aston Villa’s super sub, Duran did exactly what he was brought on to do, winning the game for Unai Emery’s men.

It was a simple enough goal in its build up, with Pau Torres sending a ball over the top. Duran had Upamecano to contest with, and it didn’t look like a battle he would win. But with Manuel Neuer also rushing out, Duran took one quick look at the goal and looped the ball over the Bayern goalkeeper. A goal worthy of winning any Champions League match, and exactly what Duran had been brought on to do.

Duran has now scored six goals in nine games for Aston Villa across all competitions this season. Five have come from substitute appearances, with Duran hardly getting more than 30 minutes per match.

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