Aston Villa extended its winning streak to eight games in all competitions with a 2-1 victory against Basel in the Europa League on Thursday to secure at least a playoff spot.

Villa is tied with Lyon and Midtjylland atop the standings of the second-tier European competition on 15 points with five wins from six games.

Villa bounced back from a poor start to the season and is now third in the Premier League, including a 2-1 victory over leader Arsenal on Saturday.

At St. Jakob-Park in Basel, summer signing Evann Guessand put Villa 1-0 ahead early following a corner kick before Flavius Daniliuc met Xherdan Shaqiri's curling free kick to equalize.

Halftime substitute Youri Tielemans needed just eight minutes to place a shot from 20 meters (yards) into the bottom corner of the net to restor

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