BARCELONA ENSURED UNAI Emery had another Nou Camp nightmare as they beat his Aston Villa side 3-0 in the Champions League.

Lamine Yamal’s early opener and a second-half double for Europe’s most prolific scorer Raphinha, who has bagged 19 in 13 games this season, gave Emery a 55th birthday to forget.

The Spaniard will not be keen to return to this city any time soon as he has now lost 15 out of 16 matches at Barca, including the famous ‘Remontada’ nine years ago, when his PSG side lost a last-16 tie 6-1 to squander a 4-0 first-leg lead.

This was supposed to be a Red Letter Day for the club and was watched by super fan Prince William – a reward for their excellent progress in the four years of Emery’s reign.

It might have been more memorable had Villa taken a number of first-half chances to draw level, but defeat ends their 100 per cent start to the league phase.

But with some winnable games still to come, they are still a good bet to finish in the top eight.

Barcelona have not found goals hard to come by this season, so the last thing Villa needed to do was hand out a freebie.

But they laid Barca’s opener on a plate in the seventh minute as playing out from a goal-kick went horribly wrong when Joao Gomes blindly passed straight to Yamal, who whipped a finish into the corner from 12 yards.

It was a nightmare start, but they could have been level within minutes as they caused chaos from two corners.

First, Matty Cash arrived late at the far post and his drilled effort was deflected wide and then the second delivery found its way through to Gomes, who thought he was about to make amends until Joao Cancelo produced a fine block.

Villa found their feet and began to expose Barca’s high line. It should have brought an equaliser in the 19th minute as Nicolas Jackson raced clear down the right and teed up Johan Manzambi, who dragged his shot wide.

Then Jackson was sent clear again and it looked like he would beat Joan Garcia to the ball, but the on-rushing Barca goalkeeper got a foot to it and made a vital tackle.

They did suffer another nervy moment when Zion Suzuki put his side in danger again when playing out from the back, but he made up for it by saving Anthony Gordon’s effort.

Villa again threatened as Manzambi surged into the box, but Garcia was equal to it.

Those missed chances proved important as Barca doubled their lead in the 52nd minute. Fermin Lopez fed Raphinha on the edge of the box and his effort deflected off Pau Torres’ heel and into the corner.

The third came 12 minutes later and it was a lovely goal as Cancelo skipped clear of John McGinn and picked out Raphinha, who made no mistake from six yards.

Leon Goretzka sent a glancing header against a post as Villa tried to get on the scoresheet, but the size of the defeat could have got out of hand.

Another poor Suzuki pass played Boubacar Kamara into trouble, with the Japan international denying Fermin from the resulting shot. Yamal, who became the highest-scoring teenager in Champions League history, then whipped two efforts just wide.