Raphinha underlines Barcelona’s class to give Aston Villa a reality check

This was a chastening night for Aston Villa, and a familiar one for Unai Emery in this corner of town. On a processional night at the Camp Nou Barcelona produced a performance of unhurried, high-grade incision, easing to a 3-0 Champions League victory that never really seemed to tip into an actual close-quarter contest before it was already gone. “There are a lot of things to learn today,” Emery said afterwards. “Overall we are competing fantastically in the Champions League; we have nine points. Today, we saw there is still more to do to get to this level. Even sometimes in this match we were close to achieving it. We had chances, but we must be ruthless in the final third. Three-nil maybe was more than we deserved.” Continue reading...