Donyell Malen struck twice as Aston Villa moved a step closer to securing automatic progression to the Europa League knockout stage with a controlled victory over Young Boys.
The Dutch forward’s first-half double came during a period overshadowed by crowd trouble in the away end.
Malen was struck by a plastic cup while celebrating his 27th-minute opener, and the match was briefly halted later in the half after seats were torn out and more objects were thrown from the visiting section.
Once play resumed, Villa maintained their focus to claim a seventh consecutive home win, continuing a strong revival after beginning the season without a victory in their first six matches.
Malen’s resurgence has mirrored the team’s upturn. He powered in a header from Youri Tielemans’ superb cross to open the scoring, then doubled the lead three minutes before the interval with a composed finish after being expertly picked out by Morgan Rogers.
The forward believed he had completed his hat-trick when he tapped in another Rogers delivery early in the second half, but the goal was ruled out for offside in the build-up.
His two strikes still lifted his Europa League tally to 12 in 19 appearances — spanning spells with PSV, Borussia Dortmund and now Villa.
Despite creating several chances to extend their lead, Villa eased off in the second half, a decision that almost proved costly. Young Boys had the ball in the net through Chris Bedia late on, only for VAR to rule it offside.
The visitors did eventually score when Gregory Wuthrich’s lofted pass released Joel Monteiro, who finished brilliantly in the 90th minute.
Villa held firm to secure the points and now sit third in the league-phase table, level on 12 points with the top two. Young Boys remain 26th with six points from five matches.
