Aston Villa manager Unai Emery said the team hit their collective and individual best levels of performance in their 4-0 Europa League semifinal win over Nottingham Forest, but urged his players to keep their emotions in check as they target the club’s first trophy in 30 years, the report says.
Villa overturned last week’s 1-0 defeat at the City Ground to progress through to the Europa League final in Istanbul, where they will play Freiburg on May 16, the report says. Ollie Watkins opened the scoring, Emi Buendia added a second-half penalty and John McGinn scored a late brace to complete the 4-0 win, the report says.
When asked about the importance of winning the competition, Emery said: “It’s very important, but [in] my first press conference [as Villa manager], I was speaking about trophies, and it’s very difficult to win them and to be consistent, but it’s done through hard work and being demanding of the players. Today the players they got their best today, collectively and individually,” the report says.
Emery said the players responded “fantastically” and that “the emotions were huge” in the team, and the report says that Prince William was watching from the stands and later joined the team’s celebrations in the changing room. Emery added that balance is essential, saying: “As a professional I try to get balance… We can feel happy and proud, but we need balance as we still have the final to play. It’s a 50/50 match.”
Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira said the schedule and an injury list hampered his side, noting they had defeated Villa 1-0 the previous Thursday and had won 3-1 at Chelsea on Monday with a team showing eight changes, the report says. Pereira described Morgan Gibbs-White’s cut to the forehead as “horrible,” saying it ruled him out of the match and that, although he was named on the bench, he “wasn’t really in a suitable condition to ‘go inside to help the team,'” the report says.
Pereira added that Ibrahim Sangaré and Dan Ndoye were also not in a position to help and that Murillo would have been a “risk to play.” He said he was proud of his team and supporters, called the result “a tough result” and said the focus must turn to preparing for Newcastle in three days, with a hope there are no further injuries, the report says.
