Club Brugge 2-3 Aston Villa: Emery's side return to Champions League with hard-fought win - as it happened

After a historic Europa League triumph last season, Aston Villa returned to the Champions League with a 3-2 win at Club Brugge.

John McGinn, Emiliano Buendía and Nicolas Jackson were all on the scoresheet for the English side, who held off second-half pressure after Nicolo Tresoldi's penalty cut their lead to one.

- Unai Emery hopes Champions League 'new test' kickstarts Aston Villa's season

It was Unai Emery's side's first game in the competition since April of last year, when they went all the way to the quarterfinals before being knocked out by eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

Nonetheless, it was a very different Villa side from the one which lost to PSG, or even the one which beat Freiburg in Istanbul in May.

As part of a turbulent summer, Villa said goodbye to Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Ollie Watkins, Youri Tielemans, Donyell Malen, Emiliano Martínez, Lucas Digne and Leon Bailey, among others.

In their place is a core of much younger, but far less established names, like Johan Manzambi, Jackson, Ibrahim Mbaye, João Gomes, Zion Suzuki, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Matteo Ruggeri, Leon Goretzka, Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Of the eight players who were brought in for a fee, according to Transfermarkt, the oldest -- Jackson and Gomes -- are just 25.

After such a sea change at Villa Park, it is perhaps unsurprising that Unai Emery's side still looks to be finding its feet.

Villa are yet to score a goal in their three Premier League matches this season. Their campaign began with a humbling 4-0 defeat at Brighton, in which Gomes was sent off.

That was followed by a defeat to Arsenal, in which Villa gave a good account of themselves but lost thanks to Bukayo Saka's second-half goal.

Villa finally picked up their first point of the season on Saturday, but were unable to find a winner against a Hull side that have started in impressive fashion this season.