Unai Emery refused to get carried away after Aston Villa beat Club Brugge 3-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last 16 tie.
After making a fast start and scoring three minutes in via Leon Bailey, the visitors were pegged back at Jan Breydelstadion.
But they emerged victorious at the full-time whistle thanks to two late goals, and it leaves the team in a positive position heading back to Villa Park for the second leg.
“It was like we planned,” Emery said.
“My expectations were more or less the difficulties we had, with the respect we have for them, trying to adapt to them more than I usually want.
“After the analysis we did and the match we played here in November, they are performing very well, they have a very good structure tactically with the ball, we decided to respect them when they were keeping ball possession with their positioning.
“The most important thing is how we competed in the match; how we competed at set pieces for the first goal, how we competed defensively sometimes deeper than I wanted.
“Sometimes we needed the goalkeeper, sometimes we needed Tyrone Mings’ save – we can remember the match we played here before with Tyrone and today he saved with a very good action.
“We subbed players for the last 30 minutes and kept the same gameplan. We were resilient sometimes and we scored two goals in the last ten minutes.
“There are still 90 minutes to play. We know their capacity. They won against Atalanta and they competed today very well. The most important thing now is to watch the match again with the players and to understand the difficulties we can face in Europe against every team.
“Our experiences last year through Conference League was the same. I’m happy but calm. I’m taking balance because there are still 90 minutes to play.”
It was the second meeting between the clubs in this year’s competition after the Belgians got the better of Villa 1-0 in the league phase in November.
With their qualities fresh in his mind once again, Emery is taking nothing for granted ahead of facing Brugge again in the second leg.
He said: “We are ready in case we will need extra-time and a penalty shootout because I know how difficult it is in each match and how things can change with one match in 90 minutes.
“The players as well, I’m sure they have experiences before with matches like that and we always have to respect the opponent, always the competition and always the moment.
“We were today in minute 25 and if we were betting, maybe we are losing. That’s football. To compete is to use your capacity to get something, and we did it.
“We needed the goalkeeper and we needed to be clinical in some actions defensively. Their striker was not clinical with two good chances, but we’re accepting everything that’s happening on the field.
“My idea is to analyse, respect the opponent and try to get better individually and collectively for the next match.”
