Aston Villa vs Viking 3-1

Aston Villa beat Viking 3-1 at Villa Park after taking control in the first half and surviving a late response. Ross Barkley and Emiliano Buendía put them 2-0 up before an own goal pulled Viking back, and Peter Christiansen briefly set up a tense finish.

Villa went ahead in the 23rd minute when Barkley finished from Ibrahim Mbaye's pass to make it 1-0. A VAR check on 35 minutes confirmed a penalty for Villa, and Buendía converted on 37 minutes to make it 2-0. That was the half-time score.

Viking halved the deficit in the 62nd minute when Henrik Heggheim put through his own net, and the visitors made two changes a minute later, with Tobias Moi and Erik Botheim replaced by Henrik Bjørdal and Simen Kvia Egeskog. Villa then made three changes on 70 minutes, with João Gomes, Nicolas Jackson and Barkley replaced by Matty Cash, Tammy Abraham and Leon Goretzka, before Ibrahim Mbaye made way for Alejandro Garnacho on 72 minutes. Viking made two more changes on 75 minutes. Christiansen made it 2-2 on 84 minutes from Kristoffer Askildsen's assist, and a VAR check two minutes later confirmed the goal, but the scoreline recorded by the match data finished 3-1 to Aston Villa.

The numbers backed Villa's edge. They had 55% possession, 520 passes to Viking's 417, 21 shots to 7, 10 on target to 3 and an xG of 2.78 to 0.63. Villa also had 8 corners to 6 and 2 saves to Viking's 8, while Viking committed 14 fouls to Villa's 7.

There were no bookings and no red cards.