Proud Unai Emery targets Champions League return after Aston Villa’s near miss
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has challenged his side to return to the Champions League next season after their dream ended against Paris St Germain.
Villa fell agonisingly short of pulling off one of the great comebacks after they appeared dead and buried midway through the first half of their quarter-final second leg when goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the French champions up 2-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.
A rousing response saw Unai Emery’s men hit back through Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa to earn a 3-2 win on the night, but they fell to a 5-4 aggregate loss.
It ends a memorable campaign, with a famous league stage win over Bayern Munich among many special nights, as Villa harboured hopes of repeating their 1982 European Cup triumph.
Their season is not over as they are in a fight to get back into this competition next season, with crunch games against Newcastle and Manchester City coming up in the next week, and then have an FA Cup final against Crystal Palace to look forward to.
“I am so, so confident to get our objective, working hard,” Emery said.
“We are finishing in the quarter-final and hopefully we can come back quick to play in the Champions League.
“This is the next objective for us. The most important competition is the Champions League. The challenge we have for the last six matches is to try and get Europe and the Champions League.
“Getting to this level is the next step forward, I want to try to win with Aston Villa.
“We can feel happy and proud and comfortable with the work we did but if we want to achieve the next level, I am going to be demanding of myself and the players as to how we can get better.”
PSG were cruising after their two early goals but they were on the ropes when Villa hit them with two goals in two second-half minutes.
Marco Asensio, playing against his parent club, then missed a golden chance to send the game to extra time when he was denied by Gianluigi Donnarumma, who made a string of fine stops.
Boss Luis Enrique, who is hoping to become the manager to finally lead the perennial French champions to Champions League glory, never felt his side would be beaten.
“I didn’t think we’d be knocked out at any moment because Villa never managed to equalise the tie but for 10 minutes we really suffered,” he admitted.
“I don’t think this team has been so dominated by another team in that way.
“But the opponent has to take risks so they attacked with a lot of intensity, in front of a great crowd – but moments like this make our team better and we’ll improve with the experience.”
PSG can sit back and await their semi-final opponents, playing either Arsenal or Real Madrid later this month with the Gunners 3-0 up going into Wednesday’s second leg.
“I have no preference for the semi-final, I will just enjoy the match with a beer at home and see if it’s English or Spanish in the semi-final,” said Enrique. “Both of those will be special matches.”
