Maatsen and Malen Settle It as Villa Beat Maccabi 2-0 on a Night of Protests at Villa Park

For most of the first half at Villa Park, this looked like the sort of night Aston Villa have learned to dread in Europe — a stubborn opponent, a flat home crowd, and a game drifting toward an embarrassment. Then, in the space of a minute either side of the interval, Ian Maatsen and Donyell Malen changed the whole story, and Villa walked off with a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv that keeps their Europa League campaign firmly on track.

It had been a strange evening from the start. Outside the ground, protests against the visit of the Israeli champions had drawn a heavy police presence, and Maccabi played without any travelling supporters after a UK ban on their fans. Inside, the football took a while to catch up with the noise. Villa were ponderous for long stretches, short of the tempo that has carried them through the Premier League season, and they should have been behind in the 39th minute when Dor Peretz was teed up six yards out by Roy Revivo's cutback and shot straight at a stricken Emiliano Martinez instead of into the empty half of the goal.

Jadon Sancho had offered the first flash of what Villa could do, skipping past a defender in the 19th minute and laying the ball into Malen's path, but the breakthrough only arrived in first-half stoppage time, and it was worth the wait. Morgan Rogers, Villa's liveliest player all night, exchanged passes with Sancho and slipped the ball to Maatsen on the left of the box. The angle looked impossible. The Dutch left-back hit it anyway, hard and high, and watched it cannon off the underside of the crossbar and into the far corner. It was his first goal in the Europa League, and the relief around Villa Park was audible.

The second half belonged to Villa. Peretz was denied by Martinez once more, and then, just before the hour, the game was settled. Stand-in captain Ezri Konsa went down after a collision with Elad Madmon inside the area, and after a VAR check referee Julian Weinberger pointed to the spot. Maccabi protested that the contact was minimal. Malen did not care. He sent goalkeeper Roi Mishpati the wrong way from twelve yards for his 16th goal in major European competition — the first of them not scored from open play.

There was still time for a warm reception for Youri Tielemans, back in action after injury and immediately spraying passes around like he had never been away, and for Mishpati to deny Malen a second late on. The win makes it three victories from four in the league phase for Unai Emery's side, who lost to Go Ahead Eagles last time out in Europe but now sit sixth in the standings and well placed for the knockout rounds, with Young Boys to come on November 27. Maccabi, still without a point and down in 34th, head home to domestic matters.

It was, fittingly, the third anniversary of Emery becoming Villa manager, and the second half in particular looked like a team he has built: patient when it had to be, ruthless when the chance came. The first half will not live long in the memory. The result, on a night when everything around the game threatened to overwhelm it, very much will.