Aston Villa beat Lille 2-1 in the first leg of their Conference League quarter-final on Thursday to take a first step towards a first European semi-final since they won the Champions Cup in 1982.
Ollie Watkins headed Villa ahead in the 13th at the far post, and captain John McGinn slotted into the bottom left corner for 2-0 in the 57th.
Lille were denied several times by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, had a goal disallowed for offside but got an important late goal from Bafode Diakite's 84th-minute header.
Villa won under the eyes of Prince William and his son Prince George in what was the 1,000th match of their manager Unai Emery but still face a tough return leg in France next week.
"It was important that we won the game and then go into the second leg a goal up. It feels like a lot of hard work has been put in," Watkins told TNT Sports.
"Little bit disappointing to have conceded at the end, gives them a little bit of belief going into the second leg. We've had a lot of opportunities and 2-1 is a bit disappointing, I think it should have been three or four."
Elsewhere, Olympiacos overcame a late comeback from Fenerbahce to win 3-2, Club Brugge beat the other Greek side PAOK 1-0, and Fiorentina drew 0-0 at Victoria Plzen.
The Piraeus hosts were 3-0 up after 57 minutes from Kostas Fortounis, Stevan Jovetic and Chiquinho, seemingly weel on course towards the semi-finals.
But Fenerbahce battled back from Dusan Tadic's 68th minute penalty and Irfan Can Kahveci six minutes later to stay alive in the tie into their home leg next week.
Olympiacos and PAOK are bidding to reach the May 29 final in Athens, with Salonika side PAOK having to rebound from defeat in Belgium from Hugo Vetlesen's early strike. PAOK goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski saved a late penalty from Thiago.
Czech side Plzen played to their third 0-0 draw in a row against Fiorentina, after last 16 stalemates against Switzerland's Servette who they beat on penalties. Home goalkeeper Martin Jedlicka and his defence frustrated the Italian visitors who can however decide matters next week in Florence.
