Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez picked up his second yellow card of the night... and stayed on the pitch.

The Argentina no.1, was booked for time-wasting in the first-half of Villa's Europa Conference League quarter-final win against Lille and was booked again in the shootout where he lived up to his 'master of the dark arts' nickname.

Unai Emery's side lost 2-1 on the night but with the aggregate score 3-3, extra-time and then penalties were needed to settle the tie in France where Villa won to reach the last four.

Martinez saved a penalty from Nabil Bentaleb and then shushed the baiting crowd, which brought a warning from referee Ivan Kruzliak. It was not lost on the goalkeeper that the French fans will remember his antics that denied France a successive World Cup when he helped Argentina win it in 2022.

Then, as Ollie Watkins waited to take his penalty for Villa, Martinez was then shown another booking from the ref. Although it was his second yellow of the game, he stayed on.

As per IFAB rules, yellow cards during normal time are not carried into penalty shootouts, much to the relief of Martinez, who later saved a second penalty from Benjamin Andre to send Villa through to the semi-finals of the competition with a 4-3 win on penalties.

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Despite VAR checking to see he stayed on his line, he turned around to the home fans behind the goal and did a quick dance then ran off to celebrate with his teammates as they celebrated a first European semi-final since 1982 in very dramatic fashion.

"It has been a hell of a ride all of my career. I am a believer and a hard worker and it was my destiny today," Martinez told TNT Sports afterwards.

"I always say in all my career, I owe my teammates in those moments, even when we were watching Real Madrid last night the manager was saying we might go to penalties and in those moments I own my box."

Asked about the drama that left many fans discovering the rule for the first time, he explained said: "It's all about reputation for time-wasting because the other goalie was doing exactly the same thing.

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