Martinez stars in shootout as Villa reach Euro semis

Aston Villa reached their first major European semi-final since 1982 with a chaotic victory on penalties over Lille in the Europa Conference League.

Martinez, who had already kept out Nabil Bentaleb’s attempt, was allowed to carry on as his initial booking was not carried over into the shootout.

The Argentina World Cup winner then went on to keep out Benjamin Andre’s attempt as Villa won 4-3 on penalties to advance to the last four.

Martinez then ran virtually the whole length of the pitch to celebrate in front of Villa’s jubilant 2,600 travelling fans.

Earlier in the shootout, Ollie Watkins was made to wait to take his penalty as there were two balls on the pitch before the England forward stepped up to score.

On a dramatic night in northern France, Unai Emery’s side were three minutes from going out after goals by Yusuf Yazici and Benjamin Andre wiped out Villa’s 2-1 advantage from the first leg.

But Matty Cash’s 87th-minute deflected strike – after goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier had dropped a cross – made it 3-3 on aggregate and forced extra time which did not produce any further goals leaving the tie to be decided by penalties.

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