Top-eight beckons after Barkley goal sends Villa past Leipzig

LEIPZIG, Germany: An 85th-minute goal from Ross Barkley took Aston Villa to a 3-2 win at RB Leipzig on Tuesday, sending the visitors third in the table and boosting their hopes of a top-eight finish.

Villa were ahead after just 153 seconds thanks to John McGinn, but Leipzig levelled things up midway through the first half when Lois Openda exploited a mix-up in defence. Jhon Duran’s 53rd-minute stunner was cancelled out by a Christoph Baumgartner goal nine minutes later, setting the stage for the substitute Barkley to blast in just two minutes after coming on.

The goal, a deflected long-range effort, was Barkley’s first in the Champions League and has Villa on track for a top-eight finish in their return to Europe’s top competition after 41 years. McGinn told the UEFA website the goal “felt amazing, because it’s been a bit of a dry spell for me.

“I think over 90 minutes we were the better team -- Leipzig’s goals were against the run of play.” “That’s the role of the lads on the bench,” Barkley told Amazon Prime. “I’m happy to come off the bench and score the winner.”

“They all count, don’t they?” Barkley said of his deflected winner. Teams finishing in the top eight qualify directly and avoid an additional set of knockout fixtures. The loss, Leipzig’s sixth in six Champions League games this season, extinguished the hosts slim hopes of a place in the knockouts.

A “disappointed” Openda told reporters his side needed to “keep fighting... This can happen. We will get another chance for next year and we will need to learn from our mistakes.” Villa travelled to Germany having won two straight Premier League games to break an eight-game winless run.

Leipzig however were very much at the last-chance saloon, with five losses in five putting them on track to miss the knockouts -- a fate they only suffered twice in six seasons under the previous format.

Returning to his preferred European stage, Villa manager Unai Emery urged his side to “break our limit” and the visitors heeded his words early, opening at break-neck speed. McGinn put Villa ahead three minutes in, hammering home from close range after Ollie Watkins nodded a perfect header into his path.