Morgan Rogers was full of emotion after netting a UEFA Champions League hat-trick to fire Aston Villa through to the round of 16.
The 22-year-old had never scored two goals in a game before Wednesday night’s crunch clash against Celtic at Villa Park, but he bagged his first professional treble when his team needed it most.
Rogers became the first player in Champions League history to score two goals in the opening five minutes of a match before finishing off his hat-trick in stoppage time.
![NW3B8280-2375175_x1GwSiC3_20250129082102.JPG NW3B8280-2375175_x1GwSiC3_20250129082102.JPG](https://img.gc.avfcservices.co.uk/fit-in/1000x1000/d6ec64b0-de93-11ef-97c0-a3ab95013a5e.jpg)
“I’ve never scored two goals in a game in my career, so it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while,” he said.
“I’ve never had that experience, that feeling before, and to do it on this stage in a big game that we knew we needed to win is something I’ll remember forever.”
Rogers added: “We came out the blocks really fast and really strong, which is something we wanted to do.
“We knew the atmosphere and the occasion but we didn’t let it get to us. We started on the front foot and played how we wanted to from the start.
“It was nice to go two nil up and we were disappointed with how they got back into the game. It was similar to West Ham at the weekend when we started well and let them get a sniff when we were on top and dominating.
“We knew we had too much for them in the sense that we were always creating chances throughout the game. We knew we had enough to win the game. It was just about putting our chances away and we did.”
![NW3B8519-2375253_tOPlQaUC_20250129081257.JPG Morgan Rogers.](https://img.gc.avfcservices.co.uk/fit-in/1000x1000/d6317920-de93-11ef-97c0-a3ab95013a5e.jpg)
Rogers’ first half brace was cancelled out by a quickfire double from Adam Idah as the sides went in level at the break.
Villa stepped up their game and controlled the second half from start to finish to secure the win, which coupled with results elsewhere, ensured automatic passage to the round of 16.
On his team’s second-half performance, Rogers said: “It comes from the manager. Because he’s so hard and demanding of us, we’re demanding of ourselves.
“We knew the first half wasn’t good enough in the sense that there was no way we should have been coming in at 2-2.
“We had to wipe it clean and in the second half I thought we were even better. We controlled the game that slight bit more and we cut the moments that they had in the first half to a minimum.”