Donyell Malen scored twice in the first half as Aston Villa claimed a 2-1 Europa League win over Young Boys.
Villa have recorded four wins from five games in the Europa League this season to move into second place in the standings ahead of Thursday’s late run of games.
Malen grabbed both goals at Villa Park, heading them in the 27th minute after a cross from Youri Tielemans.
The Dutch international was hit by a rocket fired by the Young Boys supporters during his celebration, with play having to be stopped after Malen’s second goal.
With Malen having drilled home from Morgan Rogers’ pass, the visiting players had to go over and try to calm a number of traveling supporters, with the police also intervening.
Malen thought he had made it 3-0 early in the second half, but the offside flag ended his hat-trick celebration.
Young Boys substitute Chris Bedia saw a goal disallowed by VAR, although the visitors had some hope when Joel Monteiro fell behind and struck home brilliantly late on. However, Villa held on for the three points.
Another job well done in Europe #UEL pic.twitter.com/IWpKBaKU22
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 27, 2025
Data debrief: Grinding back on target
Malen has now scored twelve goals in nineteen matches in the Europa League, eight of which for PSV, once for Borussia Dortmund and now three times for Villa.
However, he has yet to score a goal in the competition. Since the competition was renamed for the 2009–10 season, no player has scored more goals than Malen without providing an assist (Youssef En-Nesyri and Fernando Torres also scored 12 each).
Malen was responsible for three of Villa’s 19 attempts, getting all his shots on target, as Unai Emery’s team posted 2.03 expected goals to Young Boys’ 0.31, with the winger leading the way for touches in the opponent’s penalty area (11) and big chances (three).
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