Unai Emery Reveals Why Aston Villa Ended Their Conference League Journey

Aston Villa manager, Unai Emery, has revealed that his team lost to Olympiakos in the Europa Conference League semi-finals because of their performance in the first leg of the tie.

Unai Emery has built Aston Villa so well that they were seen as one of the favourites to win the Conference League especially because of their fine form in the Premier League.

Note that Unai Emery and his boys have recorded 20 wins, 7 draws, and 9 defeats in 36 league games so far this season. This outstanding run has pushed them to the 4th spot on the league table.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t reciprocate their Premier League form in the semi-final stage of the Europa Conference League.

Greek club, Olympiakos stunned them 4-2 at Villa Park in the first leg of the tie and the Greek club completed the business at the Karaiskakis Stadium by beating the Premier League club 2-0.

After the 6-2 (on aggregate) demolition of his team, coach Unai Emery said it was an experience that will be useful to his side next season.

“We got to be in Europe at the end of last season and this year we enjoyed it, but to win is very difficult and we are in the process [of developing],” Emery told TNT Sports.

“They [Olympiakos] deserve to be in the final. We lost it in the first 90 minutes at home and we were not competitive. We started this first half well, they scored and we controlled the game, but we were not clinical.

“This is an experience for us at Aston Villa after a long time [of not being in Europe] and again we are going to compete in Europe next year.

“Of course, we are a little bit disappointed, a little bit frustrated but we have to move on quickly. We started the first leg and maybe we were favourites but after the first leg, we weren’t.”