We can take confidence from win – Tielemans

Youri Tielemans believes Aston Villa can take plenty of confidence from Thursday’s 4-1 victory over AZ Alkmaar into their Europa Conference League campaign.

Tielemans registered Villa’s second goal at AZ Stadion, his first for the club, after Leon Bailey had opened the scoring for the visitors.

Ollie Watkins bagged his ninth goal of the campaign early in the second half before captain John McGinn found the net to cap a memorable night for Villa’s travelling faithful in the Netherlands.

Following defeat at Legia Warszawa on matchday one, Villa have responded in perfect fashion by securing back-to-back wins over HŠK Zrinjski and now AZ.

When asked how much confidence this win will give the team in Europe, Tielemans replied: “Quite a lot, I think.

“We weren’t really happy with our first two games.

“It was very tight and, obviously, our first game losing away from home, we knew this one was going to be a very tough challenge.

“And we did really well to win 4-1 here.”

Tielemans’ 23^rd-minute strike came following a perfect pass from McGinn which found the Belgium international in the penalty area.

He then kept his cool to slot between the legs of AZ ’keeper Mat Ryan, with Tielemans applauding the pass before sharing a joke with McGinn at the interval.

“It was a good pass,” added the midfielder.

“I told him (McGinn) at half-time I don’t think it’s going to be an assist for him because the defender got the ball...

“But it was a really good pass, I saw the space in front of me and just tried to finish calmly.”

The triumph sees Villa move five matches unbeaten in all competitions.

And Tielemans hailed the display against their Dutch opponents.

“They’re a good team we were playing against, they’re second in their league and it was going to be a tough game,” he added.

“But I think we created some really good chances, good transitions and we won the game fairly.”

You can watch Youri’s full interview below…