sport news Lille 2-1 Aston Villa (agg 3-3, 3-4 on pens): Emiliano Martinez's ludicrous ... trends now

Emi Martinez might be the world’s finest goalkeeper but in years to come the Aston Villa star may regret some of the ludicrous antics that detract from his enormous talent.

The Argentina star produced more penalty shoot-out heroics to keep Aston Villa on track for a first major trophy since 1996. 

Martinez broke French hearts with his saves for Argentina against France in the 2022 World Cup Final shoot-out, and he did so again here.

Using the catcalls from the Lille fans to inspire him, Martinez saved kicks from Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Andre to send Villa into the last four of the Europa Conference League – the first time they have been this far in Europe since winning the European Cup in 1982.

Yet some of Martinez’s behaviour was awful. After saving Lille’s opening spot-kick from Nabil Bentaleb, Martinez turned to the Lille fans and held his finger to his lips. 

Those who threw missiles towards him are worthy of even greater condemnation. Martinez was then shown a second yellow card of the evening during penalties, though he could not be sent off as bookings shown during general play do not carry over to the spot-kicks.

Perhaps Martinez was playing for penalties all along. His bizarre timewasting in the first half, when the aggregate score was level, earned him a booking. After goals in either half from Yusuf Yazici and Benjamin Andre, Lille looked to be heading through – only for Matty Cash’s deflected strike two minutes from full-time to send the match into an extra 30 minutes.

Yet Villa boss Unai Emery will know his team got away with it here. They were as poor here as they had been impressive in winning 2-0 at Arsenal last Sunday and a big improvement is needed in the semi-finals.

The duel between Martinez and the Virage Est, the area behind the goal housing Lille’s most vocal supporters, was as interesting as the game itself.

The Argentina goalkeeper was berated from the moment he arrived for the warm up and from that moment he seemed intent on winding up the fans even more.

Martinez nearly gave the Lille fans what they wanted when he flapped at Yazici’s corner, just managing to push the ball away from the advancing Gabriel Gudmundsson. Whenever he had the ball, Martinez took an age to move it on – inviting the Lille fans to scream at him time and again.

They were screaming with joy in the 15th minute when Lille levelled the tie on aggregate. Gudmundsson’s excellent first-time cross caught Villa on their heels and Yazici produced a low, controlled finish that gave Martinez no chance.

Martinez then kept his side level when Benjamin Andre’s point-blank header from Yazici’s free-kick hit him in the face and went wide. To the fury of the Lille end, Martinez then lay on his back inside the goal, his hand on the top of his head. As the players waited for the corner, Nicolo Zaniolo had to come off with what looked like a back problem, with Morgan Rogers replacing the Italian.

Just after the half-hour mark,

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