And replaced him with Colombian kid striker Duran who was handed only his second start of the season – one month after his previous one in the Carabao Cup against Wycombe!
It was Emery’s reward for Duran’s stunning winner from the bench against Bayern Munich last time out in Europe.
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The burning question was could big Jhon do it from the start?
There was a return too for Villa skipper McGinn, who made his first start since he damaged his hamstring against Wolves last month.
However, it would have been interesting to discover the Scot’s thoughts about being welcomed by a huge Tifo of three snarling lions draped from the Holte End.
Any thoughts that Villa would be forced to break down a blanket Bologna defence were swiftly dispelled because the visitors were first to go for goal within two minutes.
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Skipper Sam Beukema caught out Ezri Konsa with a raking pass out of defence to release winger Dan Ndoye.
The Swiss international pulled the ball back to Kacper Urbanski but the Pole sliced his shot weakly wide from the edge of the box.
Vincenzo Italiano’s men have only managed one point from their opening two games and probably felt they needed to leave here with three points to avoid becoming also-rans.
And no-one at Villa Park was complaining as the play raged from end to end like a basketball match.
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Villa forced a string of early corners and free-kicks as Youri Tielemans pinned Bologna back around their own penalty area.
Pau Torres was crowded out at the near post and Skorupski frantically fisted clear under pressure from Duran.
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But Bologna were menacing on the break and Martinez beat out a fierce effort from Dallinga after more brilliant build up work from Ndoye.
He then had to get down low to smother a shot on the run from Riccardo Orsolini, who was then snuffed out at the backpost by Ian Maatsen.
The Italian winger was then booked for a foul on Maatsen as this pair fought and scratched for every inch of turf.
McGinn tested Skorupski with a low shot which the Pole in goal, palmed away at full stretch before Dallinga snatched at a chance, firing straight at Martinez.
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It was high-octane stuff and Villa ended the first half by carving out two great chances for Morgan Rogers.
However his first effort flew a fraction wide from 20 yards, before Skorupski defied him with an outstrtched right boot, when the Villa man might have been better off dinking the keeper.
Emery sent on Barkley for Amadou Onana at the break while Orsolini made way for Jens Odgaard for Bologna.
But the pace increased if anything!
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Lykogiannis was booked for leaving one on Leon Bailey before Konsa nodded a Maatsen cross down for Bailey who swept his shot agonisingly wide.
But Bologna hit back and Stefan Posch added even more spice with a sizzler which flew just wide.
Tensions were running high and Remo Freuler was booked for a foul on Konsa, which sent Bologna berserk as they claimed Konsa had fouled Giovanni Fabbian seconds earlier.
Even Emery was getting heated as he fell out with Vincenzo Italiano before making up with a sporting handshake.
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But Italiano was cursing the Spaniard again seconds later as Villa hit his side with a quickfire double.
From the resultant free-kick McGinn swept in a curling delivery, Barkley and Duran failed to connect and the ball curled beyond Skorupski and in at the far post.
Cue a Holte End frenzy as McGinn was swamped by his celebrating team-mates.
VAR checked for a potential handball against Barkley but nothing amiss was found.
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Villa sniffed blood and killed Bologna off nine minutes later.
Rogers delivered a delicious cross and Duran thrust out a leg to beat his Columbian international teammate Jhon Lucumi to divert the ball beyond Skorupski.
It was the 20-year-old’s final touch of the game before he was replaced by Watkins in a triple substitution.
For reasons best known to him he threw his toys out of the pram, punching his seat after he was replaced.
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But Villa will live with the tantrums because the kid is a star!
Keating, who only turned 20 in the summer, exceeded expectation with City last season, and performed well above expected levels, in terms of the shots she saved.
That earned her an England call-up at the end of 2023, but she has been rotated with Ayaka Yamashita this season, and has not started a WSL game.
Moorhouse is much older at 29 and has not had a straightforward path into the England set-up – she was only called up for the first time in the summer, and is yet to win a full cap, but the way she is playing at the moment is what justifies her place.
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Equally, you could argue Sophie Baggaley deserves to be in the squad based on how well she’s playing for Brighton, but Moorhouse’s selection is a reminder to everyone that just because someone is not playing in the WSL, it doesn’t mean they are not capable players.
Moorhouse left the WSL in 2020 to move to Bordeaux in France and, since 2022, has been with Orlando Pride in the United States.
Her story is an example of how all players need to find coaches and environments where they feel comfortable, understood and allowed to do what they are good at. It’s also a reminder that no one’s path is every straightforward or easy and that you have to be determined and resilient to make it to the top.
If you put all of that together, that’s how you see the best of any player and, in the past and present, it applies to Hampton and Earps too.
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Karen Bardsley was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
Olympic bronze medal-winning former wrestler Sakshi Malik has revealed in her autobiography, Witness, that ex-Wrestling Federation of India chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh tried to molest her.
The incident took place during the 2012 Asian Junior Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Malik, then 19, won her first gold medal in the 63kg category, she wrote in the book, excerpts of which were carried in a Times of India report.
Post her win, she was taken to Singh’s room to speak to her parents on the phone.
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“[Brij Bhushan Sharan] Singh connected me to my parents. It seemed harmless. When I spoke to them telling them about my match and my medal, I remember thinking that perhaps nothing unsavoury might happen after all,” Malik wrote in her autobiography.
“But right after I ended the call, he tried to molest me while I was seated on his bed. I pushed him off and started to cry.”
Malik further wrote that Singh stepped back after that, probably after he realised that she would not give in. “He started saying that he had put his arms around me ‘papa jaise’ (as a father would).
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“But I knew that was not what it was. I ran out of his room all the way back to mine, weeping.”
Malik, along with Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, were at the forefront of the protest against Singh, alleging he had sexually harassed women wrestlers during his tenure as the WFI chief. The case is being heard in a Delhi court.
Malik also revealed that she was molested in her childhood by a tuition teacher but she could not tell her family. “… I thought it was my fault. My tuition teacher from my school days used to harass me. He would call me over to his place for classes at odd times and sometimes tried to touch me. I was scared to go for my tuition classes but I could never tell my mom.”
OXFORD UNITED manager Des Buckingham was given medical attention last night following the club’s draw at home to Derby.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s equaliser cancelled out Tottenham loanee Dane Scarlett‘s 12th minute opener – but the game was overshadowed by concerns for the home side’s manager.
Buckingham’s assistant Craig Short said after the game: “He was feeling dizzy in the last half an hour and kept walking from pitch side to the dugout.
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“He spent some time holding onto the rails by the dugout talking to the club doctor and told me he could just about shake hands at the end.”
He added: “The doctor is treating him now and we feel it is probably best that he gets off home as quickly as possible.
“The players were all a bit shocked and upset when we told them.”
Oxford made it five consecutive draws in the Championship with Tuesday night’s stalemate.
They have started the Championship season in impressive form, currently sitting in 10th and in a six-game unbeaten run.
Fellow promoted side Derby County sit just behind them in 12th, while last year’s League One title winners Portsmouth are footing up the table with just one win from their opening 11 games, losing 2-0 at Cardiff in a relegation six-pointer.
Elsewhere in the Championship, Leeds pulled level with table-toppers Sunderland by beating Watford at Elland Road.
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Every other game in the second tier finished with honours even on Tuesday night – Preston drawing with Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday being held to a goalless draw by Swansea, and QPR vs Coventry also finishing level.
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The game finished 2-1 and Hartson explained the post-match scene in the dressing room.
“After the game, all the lads are delighted,” he continued. “We’ve got into a Scottish Cup final. Really tough game. It was windy, the pitch wasn’t great.
“I’m just sitting there like a spoiled kid, still disappointed with coming off you know? It’s all, ‘well done, lads, great finish and all’. We’re in a final, in something to look forward to at the end of May.
“Martin has gone, ‘John’, the room’s just gone silent. ‘What’s the matter with you’? And I said, ‘look’, I said, ‘why did you bring me off’? He said, ‘look son, every now and again’, he said, ‘you’ve got to run around a little bit. And in the 72nd minute, John, you just weren’t moving. So I brought you off.”
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O’Neill’s assistant John Robertson was in close proximity.
“Martin’s come towards me and I’ve stood up,” Hartson recalled. “There was never, ever going to be a reaction from me, a physical reaction. He said to John not to sort of hold him back, Martin says that, but from my point of view, nothing was going to happen.
“I stood up just to, like almost, you know, overpower him. There was a sense of, because of that, the whole night became subdued. I spoiled the night. Typical, being completely like a spoiled brat.
“And managers I always feel now, even though I played for loads of managers, I always feel the manager is always right. Whatever decision the manager makes. Looking back, I think he was right.”
The UFC 308 media day will feature the entire main card from Saturday’s UFC event at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In the main event, UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria will put his belt on the line against former UFC champion Max Holloway. Khamzat Chimaev will make his long-awaited return against Robert Whittaker in the co-main event.
Check out the tentative schedule below for UFC 308 media day:
Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, has died. He was 63.
The team said he died Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital, but did not provide the cause or other details.
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His death comes as the Dodgers prepare to open the World Series on Friday night at home against the New York Yankees.
Valenzuela had left his color commentator job on the Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcast in September without explanation. He was reported to have been hospitalized earlier this month. His job kept him as a regular at Dodger Stadium, where he held court in the press box dining room before games and remained popular with fans who sought him out for photos and autographs.
Valenzuela was one of the most dominant players of his era and a wildly popular figure in the 1980s, although he was never elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, he is part of Cooperstown, which features several artifacts including a signed ball from his no-hitter in 1990.
This is a developing story.
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