Hansa Rostock 3-1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa played out the second test of their 2025/26 pre-season campaign in Northern Germany on Saturday afternoon, as a youthful side fell to a 3-1 defeat to Hansa Rostock. 

Jacob Ramsey's goal on the stroke of half-time gave Unai Emery's first-half outfit - consisting largely of first-team regulars - the lead at the interval, before the Villa boss took the opportunity to introduce a number of academy products during and after the break. 

Eight of the Villans who began the encounter enjoyed at least an hour on the field, as pre-season preparations intensified ahead of next week's trip to the USA, though a late rally from the hosts in the final half-hour saw Emery's men on the receiving end of a 3-1 defeat, on what was a day of celebration for Villa's 3. Liga hosts. 

For Emery, it was much the same side which fell to defeat at Walsall in midweek, in what was the first friendly of Villa’s pre-season schedule, with the exception of Marco Bizot making his bow between the sticks having signed on Tuesday, and academy midfielder Aidan Borland who was also included in the squad.

Anticipation had been building around Osteestadion several hours ahead of kick-off, on a day which would see Daniel Brinkmann’s side celebrate their club’s 60th anniversary.

Atmosphere was at fever pitch thanks to a near-capacity home crowd, which roared on the hosts as they looked to start strongly and put the Villans under early pressure, pressing Bizot, Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres high up the field as they looked to play out from the back.

But Villa did well inside the opening 10 minutes to find their feet and wrestle the momentum in the game, looking the stronger of the two sides as the 15-minute mark passed.

Twenty were on the clock when Mings rose to flick a header goalwards from Ross Barkley’s pinpoint corner, but could only watch as his effort agonisingly clipped the post, with the visitors unable to scramble the rebound over the line.

Still, Emery’s men were growing in confidence, now enjoying the lion’s share of possession and looking increasingly likely to break the deadlock, with Ramsey drifting inside off the left and Andrés García stretching the Hansa backline while being deployed in a more advanced position on the opposite side.

Yet, just moments after the teams had paused for a drinks break in the sweltering conditions, it was the home side’s turn to go close, and they would have taken the lead had it not been for Torres’ heroic block from Andreas Voglsammer’s shot, after he had been found in the area by Adrien Lebeau.

Villa regained their composure and got back on the offensive, Boubacar Kamara firing an effort a few yards over from the edge of the area just after the half-hour mark, but by this point the clash had opened into an end-to-end affair, with Bizot needing to be alert to beat away a stinging long-range drive from Leon Reichardt.

The half looked as though it was drawing to a close goalless, but on the stroke of the interval, Emery’s charges were ahead. Patient build-up from the away side saw the ball shifted over to Álex Moreno on the left-hand side, who played it infield to Ramsey. He took two touches to create room inside for a shot, and bent neatly into the bottom corner from the edge of the area to ensure Villa would end the opening period in the lead.

The second half proved a much scrappier, stop-start spectacle. Both sides looked to tire, with no less than eight of the Villans who started the game playing at least an hour in Northern Germany. Having made three changes at the break, introducing Yasin Özcan, George Hemmings and Filip Marschall, Emery shuffled his pack once more midway through the second period, handing game time to six more of Villa's younger talents.

However, less than three minutes after making those changes, Emery's men found themselves back on level terms, as Hansa restored parity from close range. Substitute David Hummel robbed the visiting defence of possession inside the area and made no mistake in finishing past Marschall to level the scores once more.

Villa looked the edge themselves back in front, with Travis Patterson impressing down the left-hand side and linking up with fellow substitute Lewis Dobbin to create openings, though the Villans proved unable to land the knockout blow. 

Instead, it fell to the hosts to snatch victory on the day they celebrated their 60th anniversary, taking the lead for the first time in the afternoon with five minutes to play.

Substitute Maximilian Krauß showed guile and trickery to jink inside from the left, hammering an unstoppable drive past Marschall and into the top corner from the edge of the area to send the jovial home supporters into raptures.

And there was still time for the Hansa to grab a third goal to put the game beyond the reach of the Villans in stoppage time. After Marschall did well to claw away Florian Carstens’ header from a home corner, the goalkeeper could do nothing to keep out Hummel’s follow-up, as the forward notched his second of the game.

With at least an hour into the legs of eight of his players, Emery will now look forward to taking his Villans stateside for their pre-season tour of the USA next week. Their first fixture over in America comes next Sunday, when they take on Eintracht Frankfurt in Louisville (ko 12am midnight BST). 

Villa: Marco Bizot (Filip Marschall 46'); Tyrone Mings (c) (TJ Carroll 64'), Ross Barkley (George Hemmings 46'), Pau Torres (Yeimar Mosquera 64'), Álex Moreno (Yasin Özcan 46'), Andrés García (Triston Rowe 64'), Lamare Bogarde (Aidan Borland 78'), Jacob Ramsey (Travis Patterson 64'), Boubacar Kamara (Charlie Pavey 64'), Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba (Lewis Dobbin 64'), Bradley Burrowes (Louie Barry 78'). 

Substitutes not used: Sam Proctor.  

Hansa: Benjamin Uphoff; Marco Schuster (Dominik Lanius 62'), Andreas Voglsammer (Kenan Fatkic 62'), Adrien Lebeau (Cedric Harenbrock 62'), Lukas Wallner, Florian Carstens, Jan Mejdr (Dario Gebuhr 76'), Leon Reichardt (Maximilian Krauß 76'), Franz Pfanne (c) (Tim Krohn 76'), Christian Kinsombi (Paul Stock 62'), Benno Dietze (David Hummel 62').

Substitutes not used: Max Hagemoser, Jonas Dirkner.