Aston Villa boss Unai Emery revealed his pride despite our exit from the Champions League at the hands of PSG on Tuesday night.
Villa secured a 3-2 win in the second leg encounter at home, but despite battling back from 2-0 down at Villa Park, it wasn’t enough to avoid a 5-4 defeat on aggregate to the Ligue 1 champions.
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Having been hit on the counter attack twice in the first half to fall further behind, it looked like a long road back for Villa in our bid to advance to the last four of the competition.
However, goals from Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa brought us right back into the tie as we battled until the end, and frustratingly we had the chances to at least force it into extra-time, but were unable to take them.
Nevertheless, Emery was proud of his players and the supporters after creating another memorable European night at Villa Park and he hopes that this will prove to be a foundation for further involvement in the Champions League moving forward, as we showed that we can compete at this level.
“Good evening. I am very proud of everything,” he said, as per BBC Sport. “Getting to this level is the next step forward, I want to try to win with Aston Villa. We played two legs, we competed well and it wasn’t even. Today we competed better and we were close to the result. I want to try to work for my next process at Aston Villa. The crowd was fantastic, they gave us energy. Even at 2-0. Still, a little bit more to do better to try to get it.
“Every player at this level has a huge level to play and to try and be a protagonist. We were a protagonist as well with our skills. We were focused on our game plan. I was thinking only to play out game plan and be consistent. We were attacking and those transitions, they were clinical. We knew it. We tried to avoid transition and today we took the new game plan and were pushing more.
“It is now most important to get Europe again. The most important competition is the Champions League. The challenge we have for the last six matches is to try and get Europe and the Champions League.
On Rashford:Â “It is difficult to plan it now. He is feeling better and he played a fantastic match. We are very happy. If he is happy, we are happy. It depends on the circumstances for now and the next weeks.”
Villa’s focus will now switch to the Premier League and FA Cup, as we still have so much to play for between now and the end of the current campaign.
A top-five finish to secure a return to Europe’s top table will be a major priority, but qualifying for either the Europa League or Europa Conference League at a minimum will be key too, while there is still the opportunity to win silverware this season as we look to overcome Crystal Palace later this month to reach the FA Cup final.
With that in mind, we must shake off this disappointment quickly and bounce back, while also using it as fuel to ensure that we don’t fall short in our other objectives in the coming weeks to really make this a season to remember.
