Aston Villa boss Unai Emery conceded that he was left disappointed and frustrated after our 2-1 defeat at Go Ahead Eagles.
Villa took the lead through Evann Guessand after just four minutes as we looked on course to extend our winning run, but chances came and went as the first half played out.
Having failed to take those opportunities, it opened the door for our hosts to launch a comeback, and a goal either side of half-time saw them take the lead and subsequently force a scrambling Villa to search for a way back into the clash in the latter stages.
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Despite pushing for an equaliser, Villa came up short as Emiliano Buendia also missed from the penalty spot, and so we’re left to rue a massive missed opportunity with only ourselves to blame for throwing away three crucial points.
While a reaction is needed against Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday to bounce back immediately, Emery remained calm and level-headed despite our defeat, as he’ll certainly hope that it’s an experience we’ll learn from if we’re able to launch a deep run in the competition.
That said, the Villa boss conceded that he was disappointed and frustrated too as he’ll know it was a game that we should put away and won.
“We enjoyed a lot in Europe and we’ve had a lot of experiences in Europe – Conference League, Champions League and this year the Europa League,” Emery told VillaTV. “We’ve started the season very good in the Europa League and Europe helped us to get better and feel more comfortable in this competition.
“Today was a match we were dominating, we were creating chances, and we scored the first goal. We conceded a few chances to them and they were clinical.
“They competed very well, defending fantastic. We tried with the penalty we had, but we missed it, and we have to accept it.
“We have to tell our supporters who are here with us how grateful we are that they are supporting us and coming with us to play here away.
“Away is an experience I’ve always felt is difficult, like today. I’m positive, but today I’m feeling disappointed and a little frustrated.
“We keep going forward, thinking about Manchester City at home on Sunday.
“Today we have broken our good form, but we have to react quickly and recover. There’s still work to do in how we want to build the team.
“The idea and the message now is to keep going forward and prepare the next match, trying to take experiences through this match tactically, individually and how we manage 90 minutes.”
Villa now have back-to-back home games against Maccabi Tel Aviv and Young Boys respectively in the Europa League next month, and while we’ve dropped potentially decisive points this week, we’ll have an opportunity in front of our own fans to get firmly back on track in our bid to advance directly to the knockout stage with a top-eight finish in the league phase.