Aston Villa fell to a 6-2 aggregate defeat to Olympiacos in the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League as our campaign came to an end on Thursday night.
Trailing 4-2 from the first leg, it was always set to be an uphill battle for Villa in Piraeus, and unfortunately we were unable to turn the tie in our favour and pull off a memorable comeback.
READ MORE: What Unai Emery said in assessment of Villa’s defeat vs Olympiacos, UECL exit
While it’s a disappointing end to what has been an amazing journey in Europe this year, Unai Emery refused to be negative about the end result, and will no doubt use this experience to improve his squad in the long run.
Focus now though switches to Liverpool on Monday night, as we hope to secure fourth place in the Premier League and achieve our other major objective for this season by qualifying for the Champions League.
Semi-final tie lost in the first leg
While there was still optimism that we would be able to turn the tie around and advance to the final in Athens later this month, ultimately it was lost in the first leg in our 4-2 defeat.
Villa needed to take a lead to defend in Greece, instead we gave ourselves too much to do and saw Olympiacos swing the momentum of the tie back in their favour at key moments.
Conceding four goals at home simply isn’t good enough at this level and especially if we qualify for the Champions League next season, and so that is a major lesson that the squad need to learn and prevent from repeating in the future.
Injuries, fatigue key factor in exit
Given the list of absentees that we have to continue to deal with, coupled with the players available looking like they are running out of steam at the end of a gruelling campaign, it’s been a difficult period to try and maintain our level.
Having such a depleted squad has weakened both us and our chances of success this season, but it’s only part of the reasoning behind why we’ve fallen short in Europe.
While getting our injured players back and keeping them fit next season will be crucial, it’s also important we continue to strengthen where possible to ensure we have a group capable of competing across multiple fronts.
UECL campaign important learning experience
This is a new experience for a number of Villa players and our adaptation has been impressive, but ultimately limited. Hopefully our semi-final tie in particular will be a key learning experience for them to gain familiarity and mature into a side capable of competing in Europe.
The challenges will be even more difficult whether it’s the Europa League or Champions League next season, and so knowing how to deal with various situations and how to control and manage games in Europe will be vital in our progression.
It’s hoped this run has helped us gain that understanding and awareness of what it takes to compete, and we’ll hopefully use it to our advantage moving forward.
Important we achieve key CL objective
Having fallen short on one front, Villa will now switch our focus to securing fourth place in the Premier League and booking our spot in the Champions League next season.
Emery is right to insist that regardless of which competition we’re in, it’s all part of the process and the plan to be consistently involved in Europe by building the club up in the right way.
That said, the financial and sporting benefits that come with a seat at Europe’s top table are vitally important for us, and so it’s hoped that we’ve got one more inspirational and memorable performance left in us to see off Liverpool on Monday night and achieve our goal.
Emery will learn a lot about his squad during this process
While he wouldn’t admit it publicly, these performances are also telling Emery a lot about his personnel and who will be able to help us take the next step.
It’s important that we continue to strengthen and improve the squad this summer to become increasingly competitive, but there could be some difficult decisions for the Villa boss too in terms of where he feels we need to upgrade.
Certain individuals have been pivotal to getting us to this point, but if Emery feels as though there are alternative options available to sign this summer who could improve us and better fit his ideas and style, could we see any big, and potentially ruthless, changes to how we line up next season?
