Aston Villa secured a place in the Europa Conference League group stage after brushing to one side Scottish Premier League side Hibernian with a 3-0 win on the night and 8-0 on aggerate.
Villa Park was sold out but there were plenty of empty seats scattered around the ground as some fans chose to stay away after the tie was all but wrapped up in Edinburgh last week.
Unai Emery’s team selection also backed this up as he handed starts to Leon Bailey, Calum Chambers, Johan Duran and youngsters Omari Kellyman and Seb Revan.
Villa will find out who they will meet in the group stage at 2.00 p.m. today once the draw is made in Monaco.
Despite the position the visitors were in, their noisy 2,200 supporters made themselves heard inside Villa Park and if only their team showed as much passion, it may not have been the thumping it ended up being.
The home side took just 12 minutes to take the lead and show their superiority when Pau Torres picked out the run of forward Duran who was able to hold off Hibs’ centre-backs Rocky Bushiri and Paul Hanlon before slotting home.
The visitors were better than they were a week ago and probably should have scored when Jordan Obita broke through but Robin Olson was equal to his effort.
However, the gulf in class was once again shown when Villa doubled their lead just after the half-hour mark. 17-year-old Kellyman beat a tackle from a Hib’s defender before playing Bailey through who cut inside to fire into the back of the net.
John McGinn and Matty Cash were introduced at half-time as Emery looked to rest as many players as possible and the latter soon made it three.
Bailey’s fierce free-kick rebounded off Hibs’ keeper David Marshall to the feet of Cash who was able to finish the rebound.
Villa, who didn’t get out of second gear in either of the two games then took their foot off the gas as the game dwindled to the end.
What’s Next
Aston Villa will head to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Sunday while Hibernian will be looking to pick up their first win of the season when they head to Aberdeen on the same day.
