Aston Villa vs Liverpool: Reds Suffer Humiliating Defeat At Villa Park

- Aston Villa demolished Premier League defending champions Liverpool at Villa Park

- Jack Grealish also found the back of the net twice to put the game to bed in the second half

- Mohamed Salah's brace was not enough to save the Reds from an embarrassing defeat as Villa moved to second on the standings

PAY ATTENTION: Win a prize of N115,000, N75000 or N38000: participate in Big Naija Independence contest by Legit.ng

Aston Villa vs Liverpool saw Ollie Watkins become the first Premier League player to net a hat-trick against the Reds in a decade as the hosts won 7-2 on Sunday night, October 4, at Villa Park.

Liverpool came into the match without two of their key players including goalkeeper Alisson Becker and Sadio Mane who recently tested positive for coronavirus.

But that did not stop Aston Villa from getting things off a flying start, with Watkins scoring the opener inside four minutes of gameplay after a howler from Adrian who was in between the sticks for Jürgen Klopp's side.

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!

Ross Barkley had a chance to make it 2-0 three minutes later after he was set up by Jack Grealish, but the Chelsea loanee fluffed the chance.

Watkins went on to double the advantage in the 22nd minute, whipping the ball home with a spectacular finish into the top corner.

Mohamed Salah pulled one back for the hosts in the half-hour mark, with Naby Keira and Diogo Jota playing a role in the build-up.

John McGinn restored Villa's advantage five minutes later before Watkins completing his hat-trick six minutes to the break.

The second half of the match had the home side continue the goal-fest as Barkley made up for his first-half miss with a fine finish in the 55th minute.

However, Salah pulled another back for his side in the 60th minute with an excellent near-post finish to give Liverpool hopes of a potential comeback.

Soon after it was 6-2 for Villa all thanks to Grealish, with the Englishman putting the game to bed with a seventh 15 minutes to stoppage time.

Efforts by Liverpool to stage a comeback proved futile, with Aston Villa instead coming closest to score more.

The match eventually finished 7-2 in favour of the hosts who moved to second on the charts all thanks to their flying start to the new season.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Real Madrid continued their Spanish League title defence with a victory over Levante at the Estadio de la Ceramica.

A goal each from Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr were all Los Blancos needed to cruise to a much-needed win as the rise to the summit of the table.

AFCON 2022: start date, fixtures, groups, teams to watch out for, venues

Football

The 20-year-old Brazilian opened the scoring for the Santiago Bernabeu side just 16 minutes into the meeting with a stunning strike from close range.