Aston Villa earned a huge result in Italy on Thursday night, beating Bologna 3-1 in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final.

Ezri Konsa put Villa ahead in the first half, before Ollie Watkins doubled the lead early in the second period.

Jonathan Rowe then reduced Bologna's deficit in the 90th minute, but Watkins scored his second goal of the evening at the death, restoring the two-goal lead.

Here are the talking points…

By beating Bologna for the third time in 18 months, Villa have become only the sixth English club to win eight major European games in a row.

It wasn't a particularly impressive first 30 minutes by any means, and in fact Bologna were unlucky not to be at least one goal to the good.

Konsa diverted Santiago Castro's cross over the line, before VAR ruled the goal out and Lewis Ferguson hit the underside of the bar.

Villa struggled to get going, with Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendia completing just six passes combined in the first half an hour.

Youri Tielemans, however, was Villa's best player in...