Aston Villa Edge Basel in Europa League Group-Stage Thriller at St Jakob-Park
On 11 December 2025, at St Jakob-Park in Basel, Aston Villa secured a narrow victory in their Europa League group-stage encounter against Basel. Villa manager Unai Emery made eight changes to his lineup, including starting Marco Bizot in goal in the absence of Emiliano Martínez, with Victor Lindelöf and Jadon Sancho among the starters. Youri Tielemans was introduced at half-time, replacing Matty Cash, and made an immediate impact by scoring within eight minutes to restore Villa's lead after Basel had initially taken the advantage.
Basel opened the scoring through Evann Guessand early in the match. Later, Basel's Leo Leroy had an effort disallowed for offside following a VAR review, before Flavius Daniliuc capitalised on a Shaqiri free-kick to equalise. After the interval, Tielemans struck to put Aston Villa ahead once more. He also survived a penalty appeal following a challenge on Albian Ajeti, as Villa ultimately held on to their lead.
The win extended Aston Villa's impressive European form to five victories in six matches and marked their 14th win in their past 16 games overall. Basel, for their part, had been formidable at home with this being their eighth consecutive home Europa League match, including the current season. Adding to the occasion, Basel supporter Roger Federer was present in the stands, watching the closely contested match.
