Emery delighted by European progress

Unai Emery was a happy man after Aston Villa secured their place in the Europa Conference League group stages.

For the head coach, a 3-0 win against Hibernian on Thursday night was the completion of a journey that began when he joined the club last year.

Emery set out to take Villa back into Europe and he now feels the team have achieved that ambition by coming through their play-off against the Scottish Premier League side.

“I’m very, very happy because we are finishing last season by qualifying for the group stage,” he said.

“For me, it’s very important to be in Europe; I think for the club as well and the supporters.

“We can enjoy and be excited about a new way in Europe since 2008/09 when Aston Villa last played in the group stage in Europe.

“We won the tie in Scotland, but the supporters were with us today and the stadium was full. We really enjoyed it.”

Emery handed debuts to youngsters Omari Kellyman and Seb Revan, while giving Jhon Duran his first start for the club.

The Spaniard’s selections produced a strong performance that brought about a fourth consecutive win.

Emery said: “For us, it’s about trying to keep the same atmosphere we created last season in the Premier League.

“Today, everything was thinking about finishing last season because we hadn’t qualified for Europe directly.

“We needed to finish like we did today.”

He added: “The performance was good. We wanted to qualify being consistent, building our idea and our style to control the game.

“We got a clean sheet and the result was very good. Now we are going to think about Liverpool on Sunday.”