Aston Villa boss Unai Emery praised the response of his players after we came from behind to secure a 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in our Europa Conference League encounter on Thursday night.
After Villa saw a Clement Lenglet goal in just the second minute ruled out, Vangelis Pavlidis eventually opened the scoring for the visitors just after half-time.
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However, we weren’t behind for long as Diego Carlos headed home our equaliser on the hour mark, before Ollie Watkins completed the turnaround in the 81st minute with a header of his own.
That’s now three consecutive wins in Europe for Villa as we sit joint top of Group E alongside Legia Warsaw, and having completed a double win over AZ, it’s a huge boost as we now just need a point to qualify for the knockout stage.
While Emery would have undoubtedly picked out various aspects of the performance where we can still improve, he was pleased with the response from the players in coming from behind to secure three crucial points and continues to emphasis the importance of the connection with the supporters at home.
“It’s always very special here at Villa Park, and we are in Europe trying to enjoy the moments we are playing here with our fans,” he told VillaTV. “Winning like today is fantastic. We have to be proud of the atmosphere we are creating here, trying to enjoy and feel something different in Europe.
“We are trying to get positive energy with every supporter. Today was a match that we had to respect the opponent because we won there 4-1 but they are a very organised team and we respect them a lot.
“They scored the first goal and we were trying to control our emotions in case something like that happened. I think we reacted very well.
“We had to keep being consistent in our gameplan, trying to respect them and control our emotions like we did.
“Here in Villa Park we try to get comfortable and be in good feeling with our supporters and then get chances to score like we did.”
Villa will host Legia next on November 30 before the group stage concludes away at Zrinjski on December 14, and so it’s hoped that we can get the necessary results to finish top of the group and continue to build momentum on our European run.
It’s been a fantastic reaction thus far following that opening defeat to Legia, and hopefully we can bounce back in the Premier League this Sunday against Fulham too before heading into the international break.
However, it was a real positive to see us come from behind to claim all three points, as we’ve struggled in a few games so far this season after conceding the first goal, and this was an important box ticked as we continue to improve and develop.
