Unai Emery expressed his thoughts on facing Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League.
Aston Villa had a perfect start with wins over Bologna(1-0) and Feyenoord(2-0) before suffering a 2-1 defeat to the GoAhead Eagles****. They now look to bounce back at a raucous Villa Park.
*“It’s Europe, and we are playing in Europe against very good teams. Firstly, it’s about our respect for the Europa League, for the competition. Secondly, it’s about our respect for Maccabi Tel Aviv.*
“How we are in the table is most important. We are going into Matchday Four, playing at home, and when we played against Bologna at home we won. [This game] is very important, even more after the last match we lost in the Netherlands. [Thursday] is being very important for the points.
*“The objective is to be in the top 24, but the first priority we can achieve to be in the top eight is better. We’re playing the game tomorrow to really get our best collectively. We want to enjoy the way through the Europa League.”*
*“The objective is to be first in the table. With our experiences in the Conference League, last year in the Champions League, and how we were managing the process in different moments through the table, we can set our objective as a priority.*
“Our objective is to win every match. We lost one, and after it there are other teams in front of us. We have to try to get three points to be again contenders to be in the top eight.
“Through it, we can avoid one round. I know it’s difficult and we have to be aware about how we lost the last match against Go Ahead Eagles and how we must correct things.
“Playing at home with our supporters will be a little bit different with how they support us and help us. This is the real objective: to win tomorrow and try to be in the top eight minimum.”
*“It’s difficult to set one team as favourites. We can feel like contenders, but to win this competition is very difficult. Only one team is winning. We were having a meeting and speaking about it: our wishes and how we are so happy to be playing Europa League. Our wishes are to win this competition.*
*“We have to focus on the process we are doing in each match and how we must set our focus in each match. And then we have to respect the competition. We lost against Go Ahead Eagles.*
“They showed us how we can lose some matches if we’re not respecting 100%, if we’re not playing focused 100%, if we’re not respecting the competition and the process, we’re not going to win.
*“The most important is how we’re building the team, building our structure as strong as possible, and mentally how we are facing every moment we are playing in Europa League or Premier League.”*