Villa’s first three goals of the season all came before half-time in Bruges
Aston Villa had not scored a goal in the Premier League this season. In Bruges they scored three inside 43 minutes, and John McGinn’s opener made him the club’s record scorer in Europe.
Sep 9, 2026
Aston Villa went to Bruges on Tuesday having played three Premier League matches without scoring a goal. They had scored three by the 43rd minute at the Jan Breydel Stadium, and they held on from there to beat Club Brugge 3-2 in their opening Champions League match of the season.
Three goals in 32 minutes
John McGinn scored after 11 minutes. Hugo Vetlesen levelled for Brugge on 19, and the game briefly looked like turning into one of those awkward European nights where Villa concede the initiative and never get it back. It did not. Emiliano Buendia put them back in front three minutes later, and Nicolas Jackson made it 3-1 two minutes before the break, running onto a long ball from Pau Torres, getting there ahead of Yann Sommer and finishing into an empty net.
Brugge had close to two thirds of the ball across the 90 minutes. Villa still had more shots than them and nine on target, which is the shape of an Unai Emery away performance and also the exact thing his side had not managed once in August.
McGinn goes past Watkins
McGinn’s opener was his 12th goal for Villa in major European competition. It takes him past Ollie Watkins, who finished on 11, and makes him the club’s outright record scorer in Europe. Watkins had left for Al-Hilal in the last days of the transfer window in a deal worth around £50 million, ending six years at Villa Park, so the record changed hands almost immediately after the man who held it walked out of the building.
McGinn was also the captain who lifted the Europa League in May, when Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul for their first trophy in 30 years. That is the run this season was supposed to follow on from, which is part of why the last three weeks have felt so strange around the club.
Jackson’s goal carried a different weight. He arrived from Chelsea for a club record £65 million, bought to replace Watkins, and until Tuesday he had not scored for Villa at all. A goalkeeping error is not the way anyone plans to open an account, but nobody at Villa Park will be checking the method.
The half hour they had to survive
Nicolo Tresoldi pulled one back from the penalty spot on 61 minutes, awarded after Aaron Wan-Bissaka handled in the area. Brugge had the best part of half an hour to find another, and Villa spent most of it defending their box rather than looking for a fourth.
That is not a criticism. Villa’s problem in August was not defensive. They lost 4-0 at Brighton on 23 August with Joao Gomes sent off before half-time, lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal on 31 August without registering a shot on target, and drew 0-0 at Hull on 5 September. One point from three games, 17th in the table, and no goals. They are the first side in Premier League history to go scoreless through their opening three fixtures in consecutive seasons.
What it changes
The league phase runs to eight matches with no group to hide in, so a first-round away win in Belgium matters more than the equivalent used to under the old format. Villa are in the Champions League as the holders of the Europa League, and the top eight is a realistic target for them rather than a slogan. Three points banked on the road makes a slow start elsewhere survivable.
The harder question arrives on Saturday. Villa host Nottingham Forest on 12 September, and one night in Belgium does not fix a domestic scoring problem. Brugge committed men forward and left space behind their full-backs, which suited Villa exactly. Forest, sitting deep at Villa Park, will not offer the same.
What Emery has now that he did not have on Monday is evidence. His forwards can still score, his captain has a club record, and his £65 million striker is off the mark. Whether any of it transfers to a Saturday afternoon in the Premier League is a separate question, and one Villa have three days to answer.