‘Astronomical’ Aston Villa admission by Hibs after Europa Conference League development

Hibs were well and truly humbled by Aston Villa at Easter Road on Wednesday night as the English club ran out comfortable 5-0 winners in their Europa Conference League play-off tie first leg.

The Hibees now head for Villa Park next week hoping to regain a measure of pride with the tie already as good as over. The Premier League club are regarded as one of the favourites to win the competition this year, just like Premier League rivals West Ham last season, and it’s easy to see why with the value of their first team squad.

Several players who took to the pitch in Edinburgh for the away side were bought for huge figures including record signing Moussa Diaby who was purchased from Bayern Leverkusen this summer for over £50 million. Other players like hat-trick scorer Ollie Watkins and defender Pau Torres were purchased for fees over £30 million.

David Marshall was one of the few players on the pitch last night who has played in both the Scottish Premiership and the English Premier League and highlighted the ‘astronomical’ financial gap between the two divisions and between Villa and Hibs. Speaking after the match, he said: “It’s a difficult question to answer. The budget between us and Aston Villa is astronomical.

“We understand that over the course of two legs they are a far stronger team and squad and should be. The money dictates that gap. We were just disappointed in the 90 minutes tonight that we never really gave our fans anything to shout about or get behind us. I thought Aston Villa played really well. Off the ball as well they were really good and limited us to zero chances really. So fair play.”

The second leg of the match takes place on Thursday, August 31 while the Hibees are back in domestic action this weekend as they welcome Livingston to Easter Road.