Bologna goalkeeper hails Aston Villa ace who ‘played a great game’ in Champions League

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As Aston Villa maintained their 100 per cent record in the Champions League, the 2-0 scoreline was not the only regret nagging away at one Bologna star.

John McGinn opened the scoring for Unai Emery’s Aston Villa with his free-kick from out wide curving into the far corner, before Jhon Duran doubled the lead with a classic centre-forward’s finish from a Morgan Rogers assist.

Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski could do little about either finish.

Even if he had his time again, Skorupski would have struggled to keep out Duran’s instinctive finish. Or, for that matter, a McGinn delivery so tantalising, so inch-perfect, that it left him pinned to his goalline; helpless and hoping in vain.

But as the Poland international boarded the Bologna bus and began the long trip back to Italy, Skorupski was left wishing that he had asked for Emiliano Martinez’s shirt after sharing a pitch with one of the finest goalkeepers on the planet.

Bologna ace raves about Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez

“Too bad I didn’t take Martinez’s shirt at the end of the game,” Skorupski tells reporters at full-time, a huge fan of Aston Villa’s Argentina number one. “We congratulated each other. He was great. He said a few words to congratulate me but they stay between us!”

Martinez and Skorupski made four saves apiece on the night.

During a difficult first half in which Aston Villa allowed Bologna a host of shots from the edge of the penalty area, the former Arsenal glovesman was kept busy even if none of the attempts which came his way really had Martinez extending himself.

“There is a lot of regret,” Skorupski adds, knowing that Bologna needed something special to end Martinez’s run of clean sheets in the Champions League. “In the first-half, we did well but we need to be more aggressive in front of goal.

“On their side there was a beast in goal and we need to do much more to overcome him. It’s true, we didn’t have luck, but luck comes with hard work. I hope the whole team thinks so.

“The game after the first goal became an uphill battle. And, if you concede two goals against this team, it’s hard to come back, also because Martinez played a great game. If we improve in the goal area we’ll go back to last year’s level.”

Emiliano Martinez is one of only two goalkeepers with three clean sheets in the Champions League first-round so far. The other is Arsenal’s David Raya.

Bologna manager Vincenzo Italiano was left ruing familiar failings at full-time, meanwhile. His Rossoblu side have scored only nine goals in 11 Serie A games this season.

And, after the summer sale of Joshua Zirkzee to Manchester United, Bologna again failed to turn those opportunities into anything more concrete in the final third.

“The boys were against a strong team, from all points of view,” Italiano sighs, feeling that McGinn’s opener should not have counted.

“We had some chances to score. On the first goal there was a foul on [Marco] Fabbian and then we no longer had the strength to hurt them. But even today the boys were focused, at this moment it’s like that. We didn’t manage to score today either but we showed something.

“We all need to give something more, try to take care of all the details. The conditions to score are there, we need to raise the percentages up front.”