Despite holding a comfortable two-goal advantage, the message from the Villa dressing room is one of total concentration. Emery warned his players against complacency, pointing to Bologna's recent giant-killing antics against Roma in the previous round. “When they played against Roma, we could think that Roma were favourites. They beat one of the favourites... How they compete in their idea and push in all of the matches, it makes us respectful," Emery explained. "They are going to play the same match, so intense and aggressive, getting duels man to man, and attacking us.”
Tielemans echoed the need to stay grounded, adding: “You have to make sure you play the game as good as you can play and not think about the end moment because that's where you can get carried away sometimes.” Closing out the press conference, Emery promised an even more intense performance at Villa Park: "When the referee starts the match, we are going to be focused 100 per cent. We will fight more here than we did there.”