Aston Villa humbled by Go Ahead Eagles as Emiliano Buendia misses penalty

Aston Villa suffered a Europa League humbling as they were beaten 2-1 by Dutch minnows Go Ahead Eagles in Deventer.

Unai Emery’s side looked good to extend their winning streak to six matches in all competitions when they went ahead in the fourth minute through Evann Guessand.

They missed a host of chances to kill the game, though, and came unstuck as goals from Mathis Suray and Mats Deijl either side of half-time gave Go Ahead a famous victory in one of the biggest games in their history.

This was an unexpected blip in Villa’s quest to finish in the top eight of the league phase as Emery plots a fourth Europa League title, and Emiliano Buendia missed a penalty late on to get his side back on level terms.

Defeat in the Netherlands. #UEL pic.twitter.com/6wMS0wM1ff

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 23, 2025

It was also a disappointing night for Jadon Sancho, who failed to make a telling impact on just the second start of his loan move from Manchester United and was withdrawn in the second half.

Villa, who face in-form Manchester City on Sunday, should still have enough to make it through the league phase of the competition, though their next match is against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in what has become a hugely politicised fixture.

Go Ahead are a provincial club based 60 miles east of Amsterdam who were playing in the Dutch second tier as recently as 2021.

The atmosphere in the 10,000-capacity De Adelaarshorst was raucous at the start of the match but Villa needed only four minutes to quieten them down.

Buendia fed Sancho down the left and his cross was clawed away by home goalkeeper Jari De Busser, but only into the path of Guessand, who slotted into an empty net.

It was his first goal in a Villa shirt following his £25million