Aston Villa's stars shoot down YB and provoke the YB fan curve with their cheering. For star coach Unai Emery, the issue of fair play is not only irrelevant, it actually upsets him.
YB kept up well with Aston Villa for half an hour, but then the Bernese went down to a 3-0 defeat, with two of the English side's goals disallowed after VAR intervention. After one of them, the supposed 3:0, Villa striker Jhon Duran sprints towards the YB fans, stands on the advertising boards and cheers.
Englishmen provoke YB fans
It could hardly be more unsportsmanlike and provocative! Naturally, the YB players get annoyed and harass Duran. Joel Monteiro is shown a yellow card.
Afterwards, Duran was met with loud whistles and insults every time he touched the ball. His team-mate Amadou Onana can't help himself, goes one better after his goal and provokes the Bernese fans again. He laughs all over his face.
"Unsporting", says blue expert Marcel Reif. YB keeper David von Ballmoos calls the gestures "weak". His coach Patrick Rahmen doesn't want to add fuel to the fire, sidesteps the issue and says: "It shows that they took the game very seriously and were determined to win"
Unai Emery annoyed: "What kind of questions are these?"
Aston Villa's star coach Unai Emery is different. The Spaniard is totally annoyed by the fair play question at the press conference. He shakes his head on the podium and rolls his eyes. "What kind of questions are these? You only pick out two or three minutes of the game. I'm responsible for the team's sporting performance over 90 minutes. This cheering is not relevant to me."
He prefers to talk about football, Emery continued. And his players were convincing with the ball at their feet in the Wankdorf, but less so when they were cheering.
