Aston Villa boss Unai Emery dedicated our 3-0 win over Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday night to club legend Gary Shaw.
Shaw, one of the heroes in 1982 who lifted the European Cup, sadly passed away this week, and tributes have since flooded in for a much-loved figure at the club.
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Emery spoke prior to our midweek game about winning in his memory, and he got an excellent performance from his players as we started our Champions League campaign with a convincing win in Bern.
Goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana sealed the three points, and the Villa boss praised his players for their display, as he emphasised the importance of imposing our style on the game and using our past experiences to help us get through these difficult challenges.
“First of all, this victory is for Gary Shaw,” he told VillaTV. “We can follow in the Champions League, winning like they [1982 team] finished and we want to celebrate this victory and dedicate it to Gary Shaw and the Aston Villa family.
“It’s always difficult away and our experiences last year show it. We played focussing very well in 90 minutes and being consistent, respecting them.
“They started pushing in the first 15 minutes. We defended well and were progressively adapting to the pitch.
“We imposed our capacity to beat them, always respecting them.
“The most important thing is the process we are doing here. Some players don’t have experiences at the level of the Champions League and others do. We have to build and create a new way. The way we created last year in the Conference League was fantastic, even if we didn’t get to the final.
“We are using the experiences we are adding to do our best playing in the Champions League, starting with the respect we have for every team and with playing away always being very difficult.
“Our supporters are following us here and helping us. We have to be strong and be together even when we are playing away from Villa Park.”
This win extends our impressive start to the new season, and while focus will quickly shift back to the Premier League and Carabao Cup in the upcoming week, there is a mouth-watering encounter with Bayern Munich to look forward to next in this competition at the start of October.
While every game is a big test at this level, Villa have some tough assignments coming up in Europe, and so it was imperative that we started positively and put points on the board early, and that is exactly what we achieved this week.
As Emery reiterated above, it’s important that we use these experiences moving forward as we continue to mature and develop into a team capable of competing at the top level in Europe, and so it’s a hugely positive night for the club on our return to Europe’s premier club competition.