Aston Villa made their UEFA Champions League debut in Switzerland and kicked things off in the big time with a comfortable win. Check out the best facts and live Opta data with our Young Boys vs Aston Villa stats page.

Aston Villa marked their UEFA Champions League debut with an excellent 3-0 away victory in Switzerland against Young Boys on Matchday 1 of the 2024-25 season.

Unai Emery’s side were dominant throughout, with first-half strikes from Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey putting them well in control, and Amadou Onana adding a late third with a fine strike from distance.

The scoreline might have been even more one-sided, with Ollie Watkins and his replacement Jhon Durán both seeing further goals disallowed following VAR intervention.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Young Boys vs Aston Villa stats from their UEFA Champions League Matchday 1 meeting at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, Switzerland.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well. 

Young Boys vs Aston Villa: Post-Match Facts

  • Aston Villa tonight became the 11th English team to play in the UEFA Champions League. They are only the fourth of those 11 sides to win their first game, along with Man Utd in 1994 (4-2 vs IFK Göteborg), Newcastle in 1997 (3-2 vs Barcelona) and Leicester in 2016 (3-0 vs Club Brugge).
  • Young Boys have lost 12 of their 19 matches in the UEFA Champions League (W3 D4), losing on MD1 in three of their four campaigns (2018-19, 2023-24 and 2024-25).
  • Aston Villa went in at half-time 2-0 ahead tonight, becoming the first side to be leading by two goals at half-time in their first ever match in the UEFA Champions League since fellow English side Leicester City in 2016 against Club Brugge.
  • Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans netted just his second goal in the UEFA Champions League, with his only other goal coming on MD1 of 2017-18 for Monaco against RB Leipzig, which was also his debut in the competition for the French side.
  • John McGinn registered an assist for Youri Tielemans’ goal tonight – the Aston Villa midfielder was just the second Scot to assist a goal on his UEFA Champions League debut, after Allan Johnston for Rangers against Sturm Graz in September 2000.
  • Morgan Rogers created four chances for Aston Villa tonight on his UEFA Champions League debut, the most by an Englishman on his first appearance in the competition since Marc Albrighton in September 2016 for Leicester against Club Brugge (also four).
  • Aston Villa manager Unai Emery tonight became just the sixth manager to manage six different clubs in the UEFA Champions League (Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain, Villarreal previously), after José Mourinho, Ronald Koeman, Claudio Ranieri, Rafa Benítez (all six) and Carlo Ancelotti (eight).
  • Aston Villa’s Lamare Bogarde became the third-youngest Dutchman to start a UEFA Champions League game for an English club (20 years, 256 days), behind both Jeffrey Bruma (19 years, 10 days) and Patrick van Aanholt (20 years, 86 days) in the same game for Chelsea vs MSK Zilina in November 2010.

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