AS Monaco edged out Aston Villa 1-0 at home in the Champions League on Tuesday, thanks to an early goal from Wilfried Singo, to secure the Ligue 1 side their first win of the year. Monaco snapped a four-game winless run across all competitions to provisionally sit ninth in the 36-team Champions League table with 13 points.

Passing into the mouth of danger once and being bitten early did not scare Villa away from their desire to play the same way. When passes were crisp and accurate, they broke through Monaco lines, with Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey all having shooting opportunities.

Aston Villa went into this game knowing they had a big opportunity to put one foot into the Champions League knockouts. Prior to the game they would have fancied their chances of getting the win given they were in decent form while Monaco had been struggling with one win from their last eight games.