The Villans failed to score in a league phase defeat here in November, but it took them less than three minutes to stun the home faithful into silence this time.
Tyrone Mings made up for his bizarre error in that previous 1-0 loss, heading Youri Tielemans’ set piece back into the mix, where Leon Bailey arrived to guide a half volley into the bottom-left corner.
Villa immediately searched for a second, but the side with just one clean sheet in 15 competitive away matches couldn’t keep the door shut for long. Christos Tzolis met a long ball on the left and shifted it back inside to Maxim De Cuyper, who expertly swept into the far corner.
That injected some life into the home support, and Chemsdine Talbi was the next to trouble for the hosts, calling Emiliano Martínez into a reflex save from close range.
The Blauw-Zwart kept the pressure on, taking most of the possession and territory despite not adding a second before half-time. Their momentum continued following the restart, but aside from a long-range hit from Raphael Onyedika, which was easily stopped by Martínez, there was next to no action at either end.
But a quadruple substitution threatened to make things interesting, and it duly did at both ends. Marco Asensio hit the target for the visitors, before Hans Vanaken saw his header turned past the post by a stunning Mings clearance.
Tzolis then fired over after being played through by Vanaken, but then things began to unravel for the home side. Morgan Rogers’ ball in from the right was an excellent one, and could have easily found Ollie Watkins, but Brandon Mechele lunged in to divert inside his own near post.
Then, with just a few minutes remaining, Tzolis’ challenge on Matty Cash in the area earned Villa a penalty, which was converted confidently by Asensio – his fifth in four appearances in claret and blue.
Given that Villa have only lost one of their last 22 competitive home matches, a run which includes their four league phase outings, they will be confident of progressing to a meeting with either Liverpool or Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter finals.
Brugge, meanwhile, will need to at least repeat their impressive 3-1 play-off away win over Atalanta when they head to Birmingham next week.