Hibs hero shares 'surreal' moment he savoured with Aston Villa this week on Champions League business

The Hibs hero netted in the competition this week | SNS

John McGinn has revelled in another Champions League goal as the Hibs hero turns key for Aston Villa again.

In the newly revamped league phase format, McGinn’s strike helped Unai Emery’s men on their way to a 3-2 victory over RB Leipzig this week. It has them chasing down a top eight spot which would book a last 16 spot directly, instead of facing a play-off for it.

McGinn is a hero at Hibs after helping win the Scottish Cup in 2016 before making the club a tasty fee when leaving for Birmingham in 2018. Now captain at Villa Park, with games against Monaco and Celtic to come, he’s opened up on his second European strike of the season.

He told Amazon: "It's a bit surreal. Obviously, it's our first season back in the Champions League for a long time, so we're just going to take each game as it comes. If we get into the top eight, brilliant. That's the target now and hopefully we can do that."

McGinn added to club media: “I thought we controlled the game well. Throughout the game, we didn’t allow Leipzig to have a lot of chances. I think the two goals we conceded were really poor from our point of view.

“They’re a good team at home. I know they’ve struggled in the Champions League, but we knew they’d be a threat. We thought they were going to set up in a back three or a back five, and they actually set up in a back four, which suited us a little bit more.

“Then they changed to a five which caused us a little bit more of a problem, but we dealt with it well. I think, overall, we were the better team, and we could have scored a couple more.”