Unai Emery: “I have experience in comebacks and we want to make history”
Aston Villa boss believes he can beat PSG by two or more goals in England and reach the UEFA Champions League semi-finals
Unai Emery believes Aston Villa can come back from two goals down to knock out PSG in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after they lost the first leg in Paris 1-3.
“I have experience in comebacks, both positive and negative, but this is different. We want to make history with Aston Villa . Last year in the Conference League , this year in the Champions League and, hopefully, in the next few years in Europe,” he began by saying, in a press conference.
“In Paris we played as we wanted, but the result was obviously not what we expected. Our expectations are to get a good result in the second leg. Of course the fact that they won 3-1 in the first leg changes things, but not much. Why? Because we have to win,” he said, and was then asked about the starting eleven.
“We’re training this afternoon and it’s important to see how the players are. We played on Saturday and trained yesterday morning. I don’t have a starting eleven in mind, but in general I have a plan of how we’re going to play,” he explained, commenting on the situation of Watkins , who complained of not playing enough – he has only started once in the last few games.
“ Watkins has shown us that he feels good. He scores goals. Against Southampton he played 30 minutes but he had a great performance. We have that variation with players. We have to try to use his qualities to help the team. Whether it’s 30 minutes, 10 minutes or 5 minutes. We need that mentality tomorrow,” he said, stating that he and Rashford cannot play simultaneously for now.
“The next step is for them to play together. Rashford plays on the left, but now they are both more often up front. That is the next step. I want to train them, I want to test them, but there is not enough time,” he concluded.
