Aston Villa won the Europa League for the first major trophy since 1996 by beating Freiburg 3-0. Unai Emery emphasized that the achievement should not be the highest point, rejecting the idea of being only a Europa League specialist. He set the next objective as Champions League participation next year, describing it as a major challenge against the best teams. Emery also framed the Premier League as the hardest league, aiming for consistent finishes near the top four and close to clubs like City and Arsenal. He said trophies fit into a broader process of playing for Europe and winning, supported by improved experiences. Set-piece coaching by Austin MacPhee was highlighted for creating decisive attacking moments, including a volley from Youri Tielemans.
"Next year we will play in Champions League and this is the challenge, the Aston Villa manager said. The best teams in the world are there and it will challenge us a lot. The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world. To be fighting top seven, top five, top four is something very difficult. Hopefully we can be close with teams like City and Arsenal. It's a huge challenge we have in Premier League. Why? In the beginning we are not contenders for top seven. There are top seven teams. Top six, and Newcastle is the seventh. And we are trying to get there. To try to be consistent there. We are achieving it."
"Winning the Europa League is part of the process. Play for Europe, play for trophies, Emery said, explaining the stages of fulfilling the dream he outlined in his introductory press conference as Villa manager. This is the first one and we are achieving and the experiences we are having is every important in how we can get better.Trophies make sense of what we are doing. We are not going to stop."
"A key part of that process has been the set-piece coach, Austin MacPhee, as exemplified by the move that led to Youri Tielemans finding space to put Villa ahead with a ferocious volley. John McGinn, the Villa captain, said: I'm biased, but we have a great set piece coach in Austin MacPhee. We tried to deceive a bit with the set piece. We did it against Liverpool at the weekend. Youri has great"
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]