Aston Villa star Marco Asensio instantly creates unique piece of Champions League history

Marco Asensio has written himself into the Champions League record books by becoming the first player to make 50 substitute appearances.

The 29-year-old was surprisingly left on the bench for Aston Villa's last-16 first leg tie away at Club Brugge on Tuesday evening.

But he was brought on in the 64th minute with the Villans drawing 1-1 at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

In doing so, he has created European Cup history in making a half-century of outings in the competition from the bench.

It is his first appearance for Villa in Europe's premier competition since joining the club on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in January.

In total, the Spaniard has now featured in 70 Champions League matches.

That means he has only started 20 times in the tournament since his debut during the 2016/17 season.

He ended up winning the competition that campaign - scoring in the final as Real Madrid beat Juventus 4-1 in Cardiff.

But as was often the case during his time at Los Blancos, his appearance at the Principality Stadium came from the bench.

In fact, from his 59 Champions League matches for Real, he was named amongst the substitutes on 42 occasions.

Though despite his lack of starts, he did lift the trophy three times - featuring in the 2017 and 2018 finals.

Moving to PSG in 2023, and his Champions League game time didn't improve.

From his ten appearances for Les Parisiens in Europe, he was named in Luis Enrique's starting XI in just three fixtures.

And he will be hoping it's not a similar theme at VIlla with the playmaker to be desperate to start in his side's crunch second leg in the Midlands next week.

Since he linked up with Villa in the winter transfer window, Asensio has proven to be an instant fan favourite.

Prior to his introduction against Brugge, he had found the back of the net on four occasions from his opening six matches in all competitions.

He scored twice in the comeback 2-1 victory over Chelsea last month, before following that up with another brace in the 2-0 FA Cup fifth round win against Cardiff last weekend.

More to follow...