Unai Emery hailed Aston Villa’s character after his team fought to the end to beat HŠK Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League.
Villa Park erupted when John McGinn glanced home a stoppage time header to score the only goal of the game.
And Emery was left to savour three points that kickstarted the club’s Group E campaign.
“Today this victory is with heart,” he said.
“Of course, we needed to do some things different tactically and to push in the second half and take better positions on the pitch to attack them.
“But the emotions, with the supporters and the great atmosphere we created, was amazing. Sometimes we needed to create our strong structure in our minds and in our mentality.
“It was amazing.”
Villa’s opponents battled from first whistle to last, frustrating the hosts with their valiant defending while causing Emi Martinez a couple of worrying moments at the other end.
The second half was one-way traffic as Emery’s side laid siege to the Zrinjski goal, and he was happy with their efforts after the break.
He said: “The first half, I didn’t feel good. The second half, I was feeling better. And at the end, if we didn’t win, I was thinking that is the way we need to create here.
“We pushed, we were controlling the game in our attacking third, getting in their box a lot and we didn’t concede chances to them in the second half.
“The idea that we were doing and building in the second half was like I want. At the end, we won.
“We finished the match with the idea that it was going to be difficult, with the idea that each match is going to be difficult and that we have to adapt our idea because it’s not going to be easy, like tonight.”
