Aston Villa defeated Young Boys 2-1 in the fifth round of the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League, thanks to two goals from Malen in the first half. Manager Unai Emery stated after the match that his team maintained a certain level of dominance throughout the game, but lacked decisiveness in crucial moments.

In the 27th minute, Tielemans chipped a pass into the box, and Malen headed the ball into the net, giving Aston Villa a 1-0 lead. In the 42nd minute, Morgan Rodgers passed the ball from the center circle, and Malen received it before entering the penalty area and slotting it home past the defenders, extending Aston Villa's lead over Young Boys to 2-0.

In the 90th minute of the second half, Joel Montero broke through Aston Villa's goal, pulling one back for Young Boys to make it 1-2.

Aston Villa ultimately defeated Young Boys Bern 2-1 at home. With their second consecutive win, Aston Villa currently sits in third place in the league standings with 12 points.

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery said in an interview, "We got 12 points, and we had some bad moments in this competition, such as losing to Go Ahead Eagles. In this competition, if you don't respect every opponent and the competition, you will get bad results at certain times."

“We are very focused on this competition and respect every team. Today we beat a stronger team than in the last game, and we played better than we did against Maccabi Tel Aviv. It was a great game; we dominated the match and had the lead in the score.”

Emery pointed out, "Last season, we needed goals in the final stages to finish in the top eight. Of course, if we could score more goals, it would be even better for us. But I think we relaxed a bit in the second half. We were close to getting chances and scoring more goals, but we weren't decisive enough at crucial moments."

“If we could have continued to be consistent and decisive, we could have scored more goals. Because after we failed to score, they had two chances and scored one, while we got into trouble in the last few minutes.”

Furthermore, Emery stated, "However, we still maintained basic control of the game, but to achieve consistency, we need the team to raise its standards in terms of squad composition and overall structure. We failed to do that in the final minutes of the match."