Emi Buendia and John McGinn helped maintain Aston Villa’s winning streak with a battling 2-0 victory at Feyenoord on a night of controversial refereeing decisions in the Europa League.

Villa were on the ropes for much of the first hour, relying on stand-in goalkeeper Marco Bizot to make a series of important stops after Emi Martinez was injured in the warm-up. But Buendia’s classy finish and McGinn’s conversion after a surging run from Donyell Malen took Unai Emery’s side to a third straight win in all competitions.

The pair were both scorers in Sunday’s Premier League victory over Fulham and – despite some nervy moments in Rotterdam – Villa are finally gaining some momentum this season.

The contest could have played out very differently, though, had two huge first-half calls from referee Rade Obrenovic gone another way.

The official unusually stuck with his decision to only show Anel Ahmedhodzic a yellow card for a last-man foul on Ollie Watkins, despite VAR sending him to the pitchside monitor for a review on 13 minutes. Watkins was heading towards the box and no other defender looked like catching him.

The ref then ruled out a header from Feyenoord’s Ayase Ueda from a corner, when he spotted Tsuyoshi Watanabe putting his arm across Matty Cash as the cross came in. It was a generous let-off for the visitors, with Cash unlikely to have been able to prevent the goal.

With Bizot sharp to keep out Luciano Valente and Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres throwing themselves in the way of Sem Steijn shots, Villa somehow kept Feyenoord at bay in front of the raucous home crowd.

Aside from a Evann Guessand smash against the outside of a post from Ian Maatsen’s cutback, there hadn’t been much threat on the hosts’ goal – until Boubacar Kamara battled to win a 50-50 on the edge of the area to tee up Buendia and McGinn delivered again.

This stadium played host to Villa’s greatest triumph – the 1982 European Cup win. Could this latest victory in Rotterdam set them on the path to more European silverware? They showed the resilience and quality of contenders here.

More to follow…

Story of the match in stats…

What’s coming up in the Europa League?