Ollie Watkins scored twice for Aston Villa against Bologna

Ollie Watkins admitted that Aston Villa were "lucky" against Bologna after winning 3-1 at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.

Ezri Konsa opened the scoring just before half-time, but it was Bologna who arguably deserved to take the lead.

Santiago Castro’s effort was diverted over the line by Konsa earlier in the first half, but VAR ruled it out for offside. Lewis Ferguson then struck the underside of the crossbar shortly after.

Watkins doubled Villa’s lead after the break, before Jonathan Rowe reduced Bologna’s deficit in the 90th minute. However, Villa’s striker restored the two-goal advantage at the very end of the first leg.

"It could've been different,” Watkins said on TNT Sports after the win. “They had a disallowed goal and if that turns and it was 1-0 and stayed that way it would've been a long way back for us. We got lucky. They played tough today.

"We got the goal from the set-piece and that kind of took the sting out of the game. They...