Aston Villa star Emiliano Martinez has insisted that he ‘won’t stop’ until he gets the club to Wembley in order to compete to win the FA Cup.
Villa advanced to the quarter-finals of the competition on Friday night, after a comfortable 2-0 win over Cardiff City, albeit we had to work hard to find a breakthrough.
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Fortunately, a second-half brace from Marco Asensio helped us on our way to the next round, while there was an important clean sheet for the defensive unit too as we look to shore things up at the back having been far too porous this season.
Martinez knows very well the importance of the FA Cup and what it feels like winning it given his previous success with Arsenal, and he spoke after our win about imparting that knowledge and wisdom on the younger players in the Villa squad, while reiterating his personal ambition to repeat that success in a Villa shirt.
“It’s massive. I won it three times with Arsenal. I know the feeling. I know that trip to Wembley,” he told VillaTV after the game. “For me, when I won it with Arsenal last time, it was one of my best days since I came to the UK, so I’m trying to tell all the young lads like Morgan, like JJ, how important it is to win this cup, and for the supporters to go to Wembley.
“My first target with the goalie coach is to take Villa to Wembley, and I won’t stop until I do it.
“It was dangerous,” he added on the win over Cardiff. “It was a tricky game. We were the favourites to win against a Championship side fighting relegation.
“They sat in a low block, and we struggled against low blocks lately. They had a few counter attacks, actually five minutes before we scored, they had a clear chance to score.
“We experienced that before. We played Forest, low block, Ipswich, low block, and we struggled to win in the Premier League.
“I think we did a good job today. We should have won by four, five goals.”
Naturally, the level of opposition will be higher in the coming weeks and months across the Premier League and Champions League, but it’s hoped that Unai Emery and the players took a lot from this win to help us adapt and be more effective on a consistent basis at both ends of the pitch.
Martinez was forced into one excellent save in the second half just minutes before we found our breakthrough, and so it’s hoped that we’ve set a standard and the tone for how we’re going to defend moving forward, as having conceded four in a heavy defeat to Crystal Palace earlier this week, that area of our side was once again under criticism.
With Boubacar Kamara back on the bench on Friday night coupled with others pushing to return from injury next week, we’re hopefully going to see the squad get stronger and fuller, which should help, and while we hope to see us advance in the Champions League and remain in the hunt for a top-five finish in the league, an FA Cup triumph this year would certainly help make this a successful campaign.
