Emi Buendia opens up on 'special' Aston Villa return after Wycombe landmark
Emi Buendia opened the scoring for Aston Villa in their 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup clash at Adams Park
Emi Buendia admits it was a "special night" for him at Wycombe after marking his first start in over 16 months with a goal to help Aston Villa progress in the Carabao Cup.
The 27-year-old suffered a devastating ACL injury on the eve of the 2023/24 season and didn't feature at all last term. He returned to training earlier this year and built his fitness up in pre-season so he could be ready to contribute at the start of this campaign.
He made his first appearance in well over a year earlier this month in the 3-2 win over Everton at Villa Park and also featured in last weekend's victory against Wolves. He did feature for Villa's Under-21s against Fleetwood Town at the start of September, captaining the side and scoring twice, but did it for the first-team tonight in the Carabao Cup third round clash with Wycombe.
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His header broke the deadlock in the 55th minute, before Jhon Duran won and converted a penalty later in the game. Wycombe scored a consolation goal to deny Joe Gauci a clean sheet on his debut.
"It was a really special night, obviously to come back and play again for this club," Buendia told Sky Sports after full-time. "It is my fourth season here and I really love this football club, so to help the team with a goal, it is an amazing feeling.
"It was where I need to be more often to get into the box. The defection came to me and I tried to head it over the goalkeeper."
Buendia added: “We have a really big squad, which is what she showed today. We have an amazing academy too, so today we showed quality. We knew that coming here would be really hard.
"They pressed hard and pushed us a lot. We tried to play our game and keep going in our philosophy and we got our win."
Left-back Ian Maatsen, who made his first start for the club against Wycombe, said: "He [Buendia] has come a far way after his long injury. It’s great to have him back on the score sheet and hopefully he can score lots of goals for us this season
"I am happy to get more minutes and get my rhythm up. I always give my best on the pitch. I am still learning and I am so happy to be here at Villa."