Aston Villa 1-0 Bayern Munich: Super-sub Duran stuns Bundesliga giants

A brilliant late Jhon Duran goal gave Aston Villa another famous 1-0 win against Bayern Munich in their first Champions League home match on Wednesday.

The scoreline was a repeat of Villa’s 1982 European Cup final victory over Bayern in a throwback to the most glorious day in the Premier League side’s history.

Bayern dominated possession at Villa Park but squandered their chances and were undone by Duran’s latest spectacular strike in the 79th minute as he spotted Manuel Neuer off his line and scooped the ball over the goalkeeper to send the home fans into delirium.

That was Duran’s sixth goal of the season and fifth as a substitute as he continues his remarkable knack of netting vital goals from the bench.

All of us in the 79th minute pic.twitter.com/sItSRIGyu6

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 2, 2024

Yet it still might not have been enough for a second win from two league-phase matches for Villa had stand-in captain Emiliano Martinez not also been in inspired form.

The Argentina goalkeeper earlier saved superbly from Michael Olise and then made stunning stoppage-time stops from Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane to keep Bayern at bay and clinch a memorable victory.

Data Debrief: Martinez and Duran defy odds as Kane kept quiet

There were fine performances all over the pitch from Villa players, but it was the men at either end who made the difference with data-defying displays.

Villa mustered only 0.4 expected goals to Bayern’s 1.42, yet Duran incredibly netted with an effort worth just 0.018 xG.

At the other end, Martinez had to be at his best to deny Gnabry from what Opta’s xG model considered comfortably the biggest chance of the match. Kane did not have a shot until the 95th minute, having failed to muster a single attempt against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, but belatedly brought the best from Martinez, too.