Aston Villa 4-2 Celtic: Unai Emery’s facet narrowly qualify for Champions League knockouts because of Morgan Rogers’ hat-trick… as Ollie Watkins nets hours after Arsenal launch bid to signal him

Ollie Watkins will have had quieter days than this one.

A bid for his services made by Arsenal and rejected by his club Aston Villa may just have put him off his warm-up a little. Then came the football.

A crazy game of European back and forth ultimately settled by his second half goal but also featuring more missed chances than he would have wished and a penalty spooned over the bar in to the Holte End after his standing foot gave way at the end of his run up.

So a day when Watkins became a back page story and an internet meme all at the same time. And all with the new England manager Thomas Tuchel watching from the stands. Phew.

At the end of it all, the 29-year-old remained a Villa player and he and his team were established as a top eight Champions League club. No play-off ahead of the last sixteen will be required for Unai Emery and his side and despite the frantic nature of this win, that – and the £9m that comes with it – is very much deserved.

Villa have been excellent on the whole in Europe this season. They have beaten Bayern Munich, remember, and drawn with Juventus. It’s felt like a bit of an adventure for them already and as news of Atlanta’s failure to nudge them out of the final automatic spot by drawing with Barcelona in Spain came though two minutes after the final whistle in Birmingham, they celebrated in the manner of a group who know they have already achieved something significant.

In terms of the action, Villa had to win this game twice. They were two up inside five minutes thanks to another English talent, Morgan Rogers. He was to grab a hat-trick goal in added time. Celtic looked done for by the time some people had blown the heat from the top of their coffee.

Back the Scottish champions came, though. Two goals in three minutes from Adam Idah towards the end of the half squared everything up and sent Villa tumbling down the table like rocks into an abyss.

Watkins – who had missed a sitter at 2-0 – scored what turned out to be the decisive goal around about the hour mark but then came his penalty. He won it a little controversially and then missed it quite spectacularly.

‘What the hell was that?’ he was seen to ask himself. Whether he was talking about the penalty or the most recent 12 hours of his life, it was hard to tell.

In added time, meanwhile, Rogers scored his own third and his team’s fourth. A European hat-trick and somehow his managed not to be the story of the night. That feels a bit rough on a 22-year-old whose talent is obvious. But as he held the man of the match trophy at full-time, it’s hard to think he really cared much.

Certainly his early contribution to an extraordinary match was spectacular. They were entirely different goals in creation and execution but both similar in that they threatened to lift the roof off this old place.

Emery’s team had quite the hunger and it showed as Lucas Digne timed a run down the left in the third minute. Cutting back to feed Youri Tielemans, the pace of the move quickened perfectly as the Belgian played Jacob Ramsey to the byline and his cut back was rammed in emphatically by Rogers from six yards.

It was a lovely goal and celebrated just as vigorously. Celtic’s fans away on the far side didn’t think to interrupt their singing but their enthusiasm was tested three minutes later when a poor clearance from goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was intercepted well by Ezri Konsa. 

When the ball reached Rogers 20 yards or so from goal, he was encouraged to shoot by the fact defender Liam Scales stood off him. And when he did let fly, the ball struck Scales on the foot and looped over Schmeichel into the top corner.

Villa were in control and could effectively have sealed the game only for a hesitant Watkins shot to be cleared from the line by Alistair Johnson. He should have scored.

There was little sign of a Celtic comeback but it arrived all the same. Adam Idah had not scored since November but his first finish in the 36th minute was excellent, lifting his leg high to volley a deflected Greg Taylor cross in at the Holte End after a superb Reo Hatate pass had found the Celtic left-back in space.

Then, three minutes later, Idah was able to side foot easily into the roof off the net after Hatata had been involved again as Celtic this time worked a move down the other side.

A stroll for Villa had become a stumble and for a while in the second period Emery looked unsettled. His players were dominant but not assured. 

Then, just before the hour, Rogers broke up a Celtic attack and a surge up field via John McGinn and Ramsey ended with Watkins sweeping in his eleventh goal of the season from ten yards.

There should have been more. Schmeichel denied Watkins twice when arguably he should have been given no chance and this is the question that stalks Watkins. Is he really clinical enough?

He certainly wasn’t after winning a penalty from Auston Trusty in the 64th minute. It was a tight call from the French referee but Watkins rendered that irrelevant when his left foot gave way as he struck the ball with his right. Up and over the bar it went. A shocker.

It would have been in keeping with the game had Celtic found another way back but instead Rogers finished off his own night of glory with a close range finish at the death. 

Celtic had played their part, though, and a play-off spot is the Scottish champions’ reward for their own rewarding campaign.

The final league table shows them sitting a place and a point above Manchester City. Another sub-plot worthy of mention on a strange old night.