Unai Emery: Important Aston Villa qualified for last 16 in tough ‘circumstances’

By Sunny Badwal, Press Association

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admitted it was important to qualify for the Europa League last 16 in tough “circumstances” following their 1-0 victory away to Fenerbahce.

Jadon Sancho opened the scoring in the 25th minute when he nodded past Ederson to get his first goal for the club since arriving on loan in the summer.

Marco Bizot made a string of second-half saves to keep his side lead intact and after Morgan Rogers saw a goal ruled out, the visitors were given their own reprieve when Kemer Akturkoglu’s equaliser was ruled out by VAR – which ultimately handed Villa the points.

The Premier League club have had to deal with several injury blows recently after learning Boubacar Kamara was likely to miss the rest of the season, while John McGinn limped off in the defeat Everton at the weekend.

Emery was happy his side were able to put that loss behind them with a depleted side.

He told TNT Sports: “The most important thing today was to compete like we did, to feel good playing in our style.

“Everything they were demanding us to be compact and we did it and then of course to win the match, score goals. We had chances to score the second goal. We didn’t do it but we are really happy after the feeling we had on Sunday.

“To recover this victory and now to focus on the next match against Newcastle on Sunday.

“Europa League is important for us and we have got in the top eight and this is the most important now of course.

“Building the team with some circumstances not helping us but next week we can finish the transfer window and hopefully we can get everything we need to complete the squad for the next months and the competitions we have.”

Tyrone Mings made his first appearance since November after he recovered from a thigh injury to help Villa secure a clean sheet and Emery was quick to praise his captain after the match.

He added: “He is intelligent and a good player and today we needed him.

“After two months not playing, he needed to show like he did his comeback, playing and getting the commitment.”

Youri Tielemans was substituted in stoppage-time and it seemed Emery was not happy with his midfielder.

Emery refused to shake Tielemans’ hand after he ran off the pitch and appeared to shove him as he walked back to the bench.

But the Villa boss laughed it off when asked what the interaction was about, he said: “He’s my son. He’s my son.”