Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was once again in the spotlight as the Villans reached the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
Unai Emery’s Villa charges played Lille in the quarter-finals of the competition, winning the first leg 2-1 at Villa Park.
In the second leg in France, the Ligue 1 side scored twice and were close to putting the Villans out of the competition.
Yuzuf Yazici opened the scoring for the hosts in the 15th minute before Benjamin Andre doubled their advantage on 67 minutes.
However, Matty Cash struck late on to give Villa a lifeline by making it 2-1 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate.
Neither side could be separated by extra time, so the game went to penalties.
In the shootout, Martinez kept out Nabil Bentaleb before appearing to wind up the home crowd.
Referee Ivan Kruzliak then showed the Villa stopper a second yellow card, so it looked as though he would’ve had his marching orders.
However, Martinez was allowed to stay on the pitch after all.
Why was Emi Martinez allowed to stay on in penalty shoot-out despite second yellow card of the night?
This led to plenty of confusions among fans and even some commentators, but ESPN’s Dale Johnson has cleared this up on X.
Johnson revealed that yellow cards reset at the start of a penalty shootout, so while it was Martinez’s second of the game, it only counted as one.
The Argentina international went on to save from Lille’s Andre in the penalty shoot-out to put Emery’s charges into the semi-finals, much to the delight of the travelling contingent.
It’s the first time Villa – who won the shoot-out 4-3 – have reached the semi-finals of a European competition since the 1981/82 season.
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