Why Aston Villa celebrated McGinn's goal 10 times, Mings' beaming smile and top-eight points target

Aston Villa are flying in Europe after winning their first three Champions League games without conceding a goal.

It's been a remarkable return to the top tier of club football for Villa after wins over BSC Young Boys, German giants Bayern Munich and now Bologna as Unai Emery's side comfortably beat the Serie A outfit 2-0 at Villa Park. John McGinn opened the scoring in the 55th minute as his free-kick from a wide position floated into the far post.

Jhon Duran then bagged in successive Champions League games nine minutes after McGinn's opener by turning home Morgan Rogers' cross from the left.

The win means Villa have taken a huge step towards qualifying for the knockout stages of the elite competition, and they currently top the league phase table after the first batch of match week three fixtures.

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Here are the talking points from Villa's win...

McGINN'S NIGHT

Missing the big night against Bayern would have come as a devastating blow for McGinn, the club captain and a player who has lived the Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens era so far after joining the club in the same summer when it was sold by Tony Xia. How long ago does that feel now?

He would have been doubly determined to make an impact last night after sitting out of the Bayern clash, and he enjoyed himself out there, breaking the deadlock and experiencing a Champions League atmosphere at Villa Park while doing his thing on the pitch. He made his first start for four-and-a-half weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in the win against Wolves, and rose to the occasion.

Minutes after opening the scoring, he chased back into a left-back position and put in a brilliant slide tackle to block a Bologna cross. The ball went out for a goal kick and Villa Park roared once again as McGinn dusted himself down and jogged up the pitch, no doubt feeling 10 feet tall.

Villa Park cheered McGinn's goal around 10 times because of a comical scoreboard glitch. Fans were in hysterics as the scoreboard changed from 1-0 to 2-0 to 3-0, back down and back up again. McGinn was the scorer for each of those goals in the same minute. He played well, but not that well.

"It is amazing," the Villa captain told TNT Sports. "Obviously I missed out on the last night here at Villa Park [win against Bayern Munich] but three games in, three wins and most important for us is no goals conceded.

"We don't want to stop here. It puts us in a great position. Some players came back and now we look really strong. What we are building here is amazing.

"This is home for me. It is my seventh season here, we've had ups and downs. It has been a rollercoaster. Hopefully we can keep climbing."

McGinn celebrated his 30th birthday last Friday and donated a big cake - fit with a Villa crest and Scotland flag on it - to the club's media team. I couldn't resist helping them out - it was delicious.

DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS

Villa were favourites to beat Young Boys and Bologna, certainly not Bayern, but Emery's side can defeat any team on their day. Especially at Villa Park.

Keeping three clean sheets in a row adds even more substance to the argument that Villa are more than capable of finishing in the top eight of the league phase table. Granted, Emi Martinez made a couple of world class saves to deny Bayern, but Villa have been much-improved from a defensive point of view.

They've kept three clean sheets in a row at Villa Park, including in the stalemate against Manchester United between both Champions League wins over Bayern and Bologna. They shipped five in the first three home games of the season before that.

Diego Carlos has played in the heart of defence alongside Pau Torres in Villa's four matches where they've kept those three clean sheets and beat Fulham away. The Brazilian came under criticism for his poor display against Ipswich Town last month, but he has been a rock ever since.

Carlos played the vast majority of games for Villa last season, a campaign where they managed to finish fourth while also juggling a European campaign, reaching the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League. He also won both Man of the Match awards in the wins against Arsenal last season and kept Erling Haaland quiet for the most part of the club's 1-0 win over the champions last term.

IS A TOP-EIGHT FINISH ACHIEVABLE?

Finishing in the top eight of the league phase table guarantees a club a place in the round of 16 draw, which will take place on February 21, and also includes the quarter-final and semi-final match-ups.

Villa have only won three games, which is all they could have done until now, but there's still five more matches to play. That is a lot of football. So, how many points will they need to avoid a play-off?

Well, the Opta supercomputer ran 50,000 of the new group stage to get a probability for the number of points needed to finish in the top eight, and to finish in the top 24. In 98 per cent of simulations, 16 points was enough to finish in the top eight, meaning five wins and a draw or four wins and four draws are likely to guarantee progress to the first knockout round.

Fifteen points was sufficient for eighth place in 73 per cent of simulations (or five wins), while 14 points was enough in just 28 per cent of the supercomputer’s simulations.

So with sixteen points said to be a safe number of points to target to skip a knockout play-off, Villa aren't far away from that tally at all, just two more wins and a draw in fact. A home match against Celtic in January is a brilliant opportunity to get a victory, while a trip to Club Brugge in a fortnight is also a big chance for points considering they have conceded three goals in two of their first three Champions League games.

Frankly, Villa will back themselves against any side, but considering how many teams there are in the league, getting those extra two points to turn a draw into a win could be decisive. While this is the first edition of the new Champions League format, nobody really knows how many points would secure a top eight finish, but certainly three more wins out of the next five would give Villa a fantastic chance.

Trips to RB Leipzig and AS Monaco will be tough, but if Villa can maintain their 100 per cent against Brugge at the start of next month, then that home clash against Juventus to follow will be massive. The thought of Villa possibly heading into that match going in search of a fifth Champions League win in a row ... I'm getting ahead of myself!

CLARET & BLUE VERDICT

MINGS RETURNS TO SQUAD

It was brilliant to see Tyrone Mings finally make his long-awaited return to the matchday squad, well over 400 days since he suffered that devastating ACL injury on the opening weekend of last season.

He will need a period of time to get back into his rhythm, as well Boubacar Kamara, who made his first appearance since February on Tuesday night. He received a standing ovation from the home supporters when he replaced Youri Tielemans.

On the 40th minute, Mings headed out from the substitutes bench to warm-up for the first time. With a beaming smile on his face, the whole North Stand got on their feet to applaud him, as did supporters in the lower Trinity Road stand.

"He's here, he's there ..." was chanted across the stadium to welcome the centre-back to Villa Park as a player after over a year.

ROGERS SHINING ON BIG STAGE

I was debating whether to call it a night at the time of writing this at 2:30am, but surely Morgan Rogers deserves a mention again. The thing is, there's only so many times you can wax lyrical about the same player week after week.

He's not the finished article yet - which is the scary thing - but the way players just bounce off him and how he gracefully glides up the pitch is something we've become accustomed to. So much so, as Jhon Duran would say about his own excellent performances at the start of this season, 'this is normal'.

At the age of 22 and for the lack of experience he has actually playing at the highest level, Rogers is showing signs he can become one of the top players in the Premier League, and by the high standards in our domestic league, then in Europe too. It's just that final ball which can be missing at times, but once he adds that even more than he is now, then wow. What a player he will be.

Saying that, he has now recorded five goal contributions in his last five matches. Not bad for a player who some feel is possibly underperforming in that department considering the quality he possesses and the dangerous positions he occupies, often with opposition players hanging off his back.

BOLOGNA HEADS HELD HIGH

Bologna boss Vincenzo Italiano was proud of the performance his players put in at Villa Park, but admitted Emery's side were just too good on the night.

"They are physically strong and have great quality," Italiano said. "If you want to compete with teams like these then you have to improve these attributes.

"Coming out of these matches with our heads held high will make us grow from an intensity point of view, but we have a lot to do in Italy."

Italiano added: "The boys did well against a strong team, especially from a physical point of view. We tried to attack in numbers, and in the first half we had some clear chances. Today I liked the approach and we held our own. We didn't manage to score, but we showed something."

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