Long review again how lovely. First half was a very strong performance from Aston Villa against a mostly first team of La Real. Completely dominated by Maatsen, Cissé, Madjo, and Hemmings. Very impressed by those youngsters (and Maatsen). João Gomes also played well, some mistakes here and there but played well on the ball. Slightly disappointed by Buendia but it’s his first pre season game i believe so gotta cut him some slack. He did better in the second half though, had a lovely assist on Madjo. Madjo is looking really good this pre season, hope he properly gets his chances during the season because he looks special. Great pre assist from Pau Torres too, what a player. Feel like Villa lost some of that defensive control when Cissé got subbed out, he was very important in the first 45 and was clearly missed after. Last 20 or so minutes were more of a formality, more or less only youth players at that point getting some minutes, but even then generally kept control of the game. Score doesn’t do the performance justice imo, 2nd Sociedad goal came from a free kick that was no foul, 3rd Sociedad goal was offside. 4th goal just a bad mistake from the young James Wright, shit happens. Should’ve probably been 2-2, but its a friendly so what does it really matter. Villa looking this comfortable and organized for huge parts of the game even with some youth/subs mixed into the team really just shows how effective Unai is imo, really excited to see how the team performs with all the starting players. Man of the match is gonna be Maatsen for me, but Cissé deserves it too.