Unai Emery impressed with Donyell Malan’s display against Young Boys

Unai Emery hailed Donyell Malen after he scored twice and sustained a cut to his head in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over Young Boys in the Europa League.

Malen’s brace took his tally to six goals for the season and gave Villa a deserved two-goal lead at the break, but visiting fans did not take kindly to Villa’s celebrations in the corner which caused unrest.

Villa players were pelted by objects thrown from the away end and caused them to clash with the police, with Malen suffering a cut to his head after he was caught by a plastic cup.

The game was paused for five minutes and Young Boys captain Loris Benito went over to calm them down, before Joel Monteiro grabbed a late consolation.

Emery admits Malen is improving rapidly, saying: “He’s progressively getting better. Progressively he is getting fit and he played with his national team (Netherlands).

“He is doing his tasks over his goals and for me the most important thing is how he is working, how he is getting fit and better. Doing his tasks like we are tactically demanding from each player and then he’s getting numbers, which is fantastic.

“He’s helping us and really performing very good and keeps going.”

Emery did not have much to say when asked about the ugly scenes in the first half but felt they were “not necessary”.

He added: “We need respect for both sides. It is not necessary to get a moment like we had today. Respect for both sides. I think he’s (Malen) OK.”

Young Boys boss Gerardo Seoane apologised for fans’ behaviour but admitted they may have been provoked by the Villa players celebrating in front of them.

Seoane also said fans came down from the stand to speak to the players but police thought they were attempting to jump onto the pitch, which caused chaos.

“It’s normal when you score a goal that you want to be with your team-mates. Maybe it was a small provocation, I don’t know,” he said. “Our fans could have taken this as a provocation.

“This is part of football but our fans should not react so angrily.

“The referee asked our captain to go calm our supporters. Some fans came down to talk to the players and the police reacted like they were jumping on the pitch, but that was not their intention.

“It’s a pity for everybody throwing the objects. The result is not nice for anybody.

“We apologise, we don’t feel good and not the way our supporters are normally, or how we want to act when we are guests somewhere and no one wins at the end, everybody loses in this situation.

“Football is with emotions. There is a rule to not provoke, nobody does it on purpose, it was more the joy of scoring.”