Aston Villa brought down to earth after Champions League joy

Just five days after Villa Park roared Aston Villa to victory over Bologna in the Champions League, they were brought back down to earth by being denied a deserved victory.

Any sense of frustration shows how far Villa have come in the two years since Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard as manager.

Villa were 10 seconds away from adding Bournemouth to their list of defeated opponents at Villa Park this month following famous victories over Bayern Munich and Bologna.

But Bournemouth substitute Evanilson had other ideas, the £40 million record signing from Porto heading home Marcus Tavernier’s free-kick in the 96th minute to make it an unlikely four points over eight days after last weekend’s win over Arsenal.

Half-time substitute Ross Barkley thought he had clinched a hugely deserved win in the 76th minute to reward Villa’s dominance.

“We needed to focus in defence and be strong, like we usually are,” Villa manager Emery said.

“But they scored and we’re frustrated because we deserved to win.

“There’s still work to do because we’re trying to get a strong mentality, as well as being strong in our structure, and emotionally.

“Emotionally when you are 1-0 up in the last minute and you think the three points are very important... we didn’t control it.

“We have to learn, the players have to learn and we have to focus on that as part of our process.”

Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers, who replaced the injured Kepa Arrizabalaga, made a string of saves to keep his side in the game.

Villa thought they had taken the lead in the 28th minute when John McGinn curled home a beauty from just inside the box but VAR ruled the ball had crept out of play before Ollie Watkins cut the ball back for the Scot.

Emery had no issue with this, insisting referee Chris Kavanagh had a “fantastic” game.

Villa’s much-deserved breakthrough came when Barkley slid home after fellow substitute Leon Bailey nodded down a cross from Ian Maatsen – another replacement.

Then came the late, late drama as the visitors pinched a point.

“Mark kept us in the game in difficult moments,” said Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola of Travers. “I think they played better than us, so I was happy to score in the last minute at a very difficult place.”