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 said they must now keep their emotions in check as they look to win their first trophy in 30 years.
Villa were magnificent as they overturned last week’s 1-0 defeat at the City Ground to progress through to the Europa League final in Istanbul, where they’ll play Freiburg on May 20.
Ollie Watkins opened the scoring for Villa in the first half, with Emi Buendia adding a second-half penalty before John McGinn scored a late brace to bring up the comfortable win.
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.”
Emery said the players responded “fantastically” and said the “emotions were huge” in the team. Prince William was watching on from the stands and he joined the team’s celebrations in the changing room afterwards.
But Emery said his team must stay composed as they look to win the club’s first trophy since 1996.
“As a professional I try to get balance,” Emery said. “Of course I knew before the match, there were two ways: one to lose, one to win.
“We were always looking forward in every situation. We can feel happy and proud, but we need balance as we still have the final to play. It’s a 50/50 match. Freiburg are a good team, good players, good coaches and good competitive way. We are enjoying it. It’ll be something fantastic.”
Vitor Pereira, the Nottingham Forest boss, said the schedule and injury list caught up with his team. Having defeated Villa 1-0 last Thursday, they won 3-1 at Chelsea on Monday with a team showing eight changes.
But that win came a cost, with Morgan Gibbs-White sustaining a horrible cut on his forehead. Ultimately that ruled him out of the match, and Pereira said though he was named on the bench, he wasn’t really in a suitable condition to “go inside to help the team,” nor were Ibrahim Sangaré or Dan Ndoye, while Murillo was a “risk to play.”
“In the end, I’m proud of my team and players, proud of our supporters,” Pereira said. “We came here without conditions to compete for the final. We had one day fewer to recover. They tried everything but we didn’t have the solutions.
“It’s a tough result. It’s a sad, difficult day but we need to look to the future for three days for Newcastle. I hope we don’t have any more injuries as it’s difficult to compete in this level.
“We need to come back again with energy. Today is a difficult day, but tomorrow but it’s time to come back again as we don’t have time to complain. To compete with Villa today, we needed fit players.”
