Aston Villa trounce Liverpool 4-2 to seal Champions League place

Liverpool’s woes deepen as Ollie Watkins scores a brace to help his side to a dominant win at Villa Park.Ollie Watkins scored twice as Aston Villa eased to a 4-2 Premier League victory over Liverpool to seal Champions League qualification for next ⁠season and leave their visitors looking over their shoulder at the chasing pack.The win on Friday moves Villa into fourth place with 62 points from their 37 games, leapfrogging their opponents, who have 59 points from ⁠the same number of matches.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Lukaku included in Belgium’s World Cup squad despite injury-plagued seasonlist 2 of 4Benched Mbappe says he’s fourth-choice forward at Real Madrid under Arbeloalist 3 of 4David Beckham becomes first British billionaire sportsmanlist 4 of 4Mbappe and Dembele head up star-studded France World Cup squadend of listLiverpool remain vulnerable to being caught by both Bournemouth and Brighton in the race for a Champions League place as they slipped to a 12th defeat of the season with a single point from the last nine available.Morgan Rogers gave Villa a first-half lead before Virgil van ‌Dijk equalised for Liverpool early in the second period and then got another in added time.But Watkins’ double and a brilliant late fourth from John McGinn sealed the win for Unai Emery’s side, who head into Wednesday’s Europa League final against Freiburg in buoyant mood.“We had to get over the line,” McGinn told Sky Sports. It allows us to be excited and enjoy Wednesday properly.“[Watkins] was obviously disappointed in March [being left out of the England squad] but if it gave him a kick ⁠up the backside, he’s certainly responded in the best way.“We’re so fortunate to ⁠have him, what he’s done for this club the past few seasons has been incredible. Hopefully, he can carry that into next week.”Villa head to Istanbul to meet Freiburg with one of their major goals this season already achieved, and the chance ⁠to lift silverware to cap their campaign.