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Michael Hefele's bizarre late equaliser denied Aston Villa a second straight win and maintained Huddersfield Town's unbeaten start to the league season.

Hefele chased down Pierluigi Gollini's clearance and the ball bounced off his back straight into the empty Villa net.

The hosts had been on course to win after Ross McCormack headed in his first Villa goal before half-time.

Rudy Gestede had chances to extend the lead, before Nahki Wells struck the post as Huddersfield rallied late on.

When McCormack headed in Jack Grealish's skimmed cross before half-time, Villa were good value for their lead on a emotional night for the club following the death of former player Dalian Atkinson.

Ashley Westwood had fired over from a corner early on, after Jordan Ayew's decent effort was saved.

Gestede should have made it 2-0 but Huddersfield more than matched the hosts after the break and Elias Kachunga almost scored from an overhead kick, before a combination of Hefele's persistence and hesitant Villa defending saw the German level in unusual circumstances.

The result left Huddersfield - who won at Newcastle on Saturday - level on points with leaders Brighton and Norwich in third, three points ahead of Villa.

Aston Villa manager Roberto Di Matteo:

"[Pierluigi Gollini] is obviously disappointed but he is a young keeper who will have to learn from this. You learn from your mistakes, they are experiences, but he is a very strong character as well.

"He wanted to kick it away and kicked it onto the opposition. There's plenty of space, (James) Chester blocked the Huddersfield player off nicely so there was plenty of space. When the keeper make a mistake it's usually a goal but he made some great saves as well.

"But I thought we played a magnificent first half with a lot of intensity and energy on the pitch. We had some good opportunities to score the second goal and kill the game off a little bit. It's something we need to improve to be able to win games."

Huddersfield Town boss David Wagner:

"It was a strange moment, when I brought him on I didn't have the picture of this goal in my head. At the end it was a typical Hef goal, he is a great character and has a fighting attitude.

"It's not easy for him at the moment because he has two strong competitors with [Mark] Hudson and [Christopher] Schindler but I'm very pleased for him.

"I explained to Nahki [Wells] why I didn't give him a start because, after he missed such a big part of pre-season, he is not able to recover in three days after the 65 minutes he played against Newcastle.

"I said to him he could make the difference when he comes on to the pitch. With a bit more luck he could have scored three goals. He'll become fitter and fitter and he will be the Nahki Wells we had last season."