Young Boys lost 3-0 to Aston Villa despite a superior start, with two mistakes at the root of the clear defeat.
Patrick Rahmen was quick to pinpoint the reasons for the opening defeat. "If you concede these two goals at this level, it's going to be difficult," said the Young Boys coach after the game against Aston Villa, visibly disappointed. "We have to take ourselves to task."
Carelessness and a hair-raising mistake dashed the Swiss champions' hopes of a good start to the Champions League. First, the positioning at a corner was not right, then the experienced Mohamed Ali Camara of all people made a hair-raising back pass. "Everyone simply has to do their job when it comes to set pieces," said goalkeeper David von Ballmoos. "If someone gets such a free shot, someone hasn't done their job. We had a clear division there." The captain called the action that led to the second goal "extremely unfortunate".
"We went into the break 2-0 down, but we felt we had played well," said Von Ballmoos. In fact, only YB were dangerous in the early stages. But the handful of scoring chances did not result in a goal. "We knew we had to be efficient to take something home. Unfortunately, we weren't that today," said Rahmen. After the 0:2, it became extremely difficult and they reached their limits.
The task in the top flight will not be any easier. On the second matchday, Young Boys travel to Spanish league leaders FC Barcelona, followed by a home game against Italian champions Inter Milan.