Unai Emery spoke to local, national and international media upon arrival in Greece on Wednesday evening to preview Aston Villa’s UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final second leg against Olympiacos.
The head coach reflected on the first leg defeat at Villa Park, discussed his previous experiences of turning around a two-goal first leg deficit with Sevilla against Real Betis in 2014, Villa’s approach at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis and much more.
Here's what he had to say...
On team news…
“We have some players close to coming back but I don’t know exactly if they can play tomorrow or not.
“I prefer to wait for tomorrow with the players we have here in the squad and then decide.”
On Emi Martínez: “I don’t know if he’s going to be available tomorrow.
“He is with us today.
“He was injured last week after the match against Chelsea, 10 days.
“Tomorrow I will speak with him and the doctor if he is 100% available to play.
“But if not, I believe in Robin Olsen.”
On drawing upon previous experiences…
“Of course, experiences always can help you, being successful or not successful.
“But we have to create, to build a new way.
“We lost the first leg clearly 4-2, tomorrow will be difficult to come back.
“But we must play tomorrow thinking to extend after the first 90 minutes.
“The gameplan we had, didn’t work well, but expect tomorrow to do better.
“Of course, it’s going to be very difficult here away because the atmosphere supporting the home team could be more difficult.
“Here the supporters push a lot helping them, but focusing how we can react like with my experiences I did before.
“Building a new experience here, with our players, with our idea, with our experiences this year with Aston Villa.
“This is the challenge tomorrow, the biggest challenge we’re going to face this year, playing in this semi-final.”
On second leg approach…
“Always when we are losing, we are making mistakes.
“Of course, before the match we are always trying to analyse and respect the opponent and gain the objective, don’t make mistakes.
“But we did more than normal in the first leg.
“Even making mistakes, we were drawing after 2-0, but again we weren’t progressing enough, maybe emotionally, after our draw at home, and they responded very well, scoring two goals more.
“Emotionally as well it’s difficult to keep the balance in that moment for the players, because we were very excited and the match changed in small minutes.
“But that experience we have is very important and tomorrow we have to try to keep the balance, even if we are not scoring or even if we concede one goal.
“In 90 minutes, we can play imposing our position on the pitch, getting chances and we can be clinical, more or less, in one moment during the match.
“We have to try to be competitive like they were at home against us.
“Tomorrow we have to be in the same idea, improving some things we didn’t do like we prepared beforehand.”
On Villa’s season so far…
“We’re getting towards the end of the season and we’re really enjoying the way we are doing this year.
“It’s been tough, difficult, but really amazing moment we’ve had together in the Premier League and in the Conference League.
“I told the players this morning, I want to enjoy more; I want to enjoy today, I want to enjoy tomorrow. I want to be motivated for how we can react tomorrow, our response on the pitch.
“I appreciate a lot and I’m very proud of how we’ve been this year, even when we were not being successful sometimes, losing some matches, our reaction has always been fantastic.
“The players were always following the messages we were sending, being demanding.
“There’s still matches to play, I don’t know how many, starting tomorrow and then the Premier League as well.
“I will find the best performances tomorrow and really be competitive, we didn’t play competitive, like we were in the first leg in 90 minutes.
“Of course, if you are losing your focus, your concentration, against teams who are very focused, very competitive, have experienced players, it could happen like it did in the first leg.
“But tomorrow we will have the opportunity to come back and react quickly.
“In 90 minutes, we have to be focused with everything tactically, being in control of our emotions, set-pieces as well, everything.”
