Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was pleased with his side’s defensive performance in our 0-0 draw with Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday.
It was a much-needed clean sheet for Villa given our defensive woes in recent weeks, which has coincided with a slump in form as we’re now without a win in our last seven games across all competitions.
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However, there was certainly an improvement in this display in terms of how we showed more control and structure in and out of possession, and so it’s no surprise that the Villa boss found positives in the encounter to take forward.
Villa conceded 12 goals in the six games we played prior to Wednesday night’s clash with the Turin giants, as we’ve developed an unwanted habit of conceding poor goals, but that wasn’t the case in midweek as we produced another solid defensive effort in Europe and Emery was very happy with what he saw.
“It was fantastic,” he told VillaTV. “We needed one match like this, playing seriously with a clean sheet, defending strong, being compact and then trying to impose and dominate some areas of the match.
“We didn’t create a lot of chances but we didn’t concede a lot of chances. We were closer to scoring and in the second half we were progressively getting better.
“We needed one save from Emiliano, a fantastic save, but even in the last action, in England it’s a goal, in Europe it’s not. That’s the decision of the referee.
“The easier interpretation for the referee is a foul, but in England we know when the opponent is not using their hands to push the goalkeeper or to touch him clearly, usually it’s fair. We have to accept it.
“We have ten points in the Champions League and we were enjoying it in Villa Park. We played a very serious match, a very competitive match against Juventus, respecting them.
“I think we have to carry on enjoying this competition. We are being very serious and competing very well.
“We only conceded one goal in five matches. We have three wins and ten points. We have three matches to play and to enjoy.
“We have possibilities and opportunities coming if we are winning to be a contender for the top eight positions.
“The first objective is to get to the next round.”
Naturally, there was a lot of frustration and disappointment after our defeat at Club Brugge last time out, particularly given the circumstances in which we ultimately lost that game, while expectations were high after our start in the opening three encounters.
That said, looking at our Champions League campaign in totality thus far, we’ve performed well and secured important results to put ourselves in a strong position to advance, and so hopefully we can finish the job in the remaining games.
In the more immediate future, this has to be a performance and result that helps us build form and get back to winning ways now, starting at Chelsea on Sunday. That will of course be another difficult challenge, but we have the capability to be strong defensively as we showed again in midweek, but now it’s about finding the balance with that and being clinical and decisive in our attacking play.
That’s ultimately where we’re still looking to improve at the minute, but particularly with Boubacar Kamara back in the Villa XI and with Ezri Konsa on the bench for this one and hopefully available at the weekend, we’re edging ever close to having our strongest line-up out on the pitch on a more consistent basis.