Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was pleased with our 1-0 win over Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League, as he insisted it was victory ‘with heart’.
Villa dominated the game at Villa Park on Thursday night, enjoying 70 percent of possession while attempting 27 shots on goal.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Zrinjski: Key trio decisive in dramatic win
However, despite that sustained pressure, particularly in the second half, it wasn’t until the 94th minute that we managed to find our winner, with John McGinn nodding home Matty Cash’s cross.
It was a crucial win as it gives us three valuable points in Group E, and it was imperative that we bounced back and got on the board after defeat to Legia Warsaw in our opening game.
Emery was unsurprisingly delighted to get the win, but having made six changes to his starting line-up, he is still looking to build a team, and that means getting more from those coming in.
“Today this victory is with heart,” he told VillaTV. “Of course, we needed to do some things different tactically and to push in the second half and take better positions on the pitch to attack them.
“But the emotions, with the supporters and the great atmosphere we created, was amazing. Sometimes we needed to create our strong structure in our minds and in our mentality. It was amazing.
“The first half, I didn’t feel good. The second half, I was feeling better. And at the end, if we didn’t win, I was thinking that is the way we need to create here.
“We pushed, we were controlling the game in our attacking third, getting in their box a lot and we didn’t concede chances to them in the second half.
“The idea that we were doing and building in the second half was like I want. At the end, we won.
“We finished the match with the idea that it was going to be difficult, with the idea that each match is going to be difficult and that we have to adapt our idea because it’s not going to be easy, like tonight.”
While Villa were on top in the opening 45 minutes too, there was a superb save from Emi Martinez to keep it goalless and so that proved to be a big moment in the encounter.
However, following the introduction of Matty Cash and Douglas Luiz at half-time, Villa were able to sustain our pressure and really attack Zrinjski, and eventually it paid off with a dramatic late winner.
Nevertheless, there is still work to be done as a team when we do rotate, as ultimately we’re not yet as effective as we are at full strength, and Emery has insisted previously that he wants to build a team that regardless of personnel, is able to implement the game plan successfully.
Villa are of course without a number of key players due to injury too with Alex Moreno, Moussa Diaby, Jacob Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara missing out in midweek, and so it’s hoped that when we recover those individuals, we’ll be in a much stronger position to compete.
