Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is relishing the opportunity to take his side one step closer to Champions League knockout qualification at RB Leipzig in an important game for both teams.
A loss at Club Brugge and a draw at home to Juventus means Villa have failed to win either of their last two European games after starting the competition with three straight victories.
But Emery’s side still sit only one place outside the top eight and a win on Tuesday could see them climb back into the automatic qualification places with two games to play.
Although Leipzig are still to claim a single point this campaign, the Spaniard thinks it will be a tough encounter against an experienced Champions League side.
He said: “Tomorrow is day six and it’s very important because we can feel we’re close to the next round, but we have the opportunity to be in the top eight.
Leipzig bound ✈️ pic.twitter.com/GLLS7wSyur
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 9, 2024
“They played against Liverpool, they lost. They played against Juventus, they lost. They played against Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Celtic as well and they don’t have one point. They have nil, but tomorrow is an opportunity for them to get some chance to be in the next round.
“I like matches like that because it’s a key match for them to get to the next round – it’s a good match to see how the players face a team with more experiences in this competition than us.”
Striker Jhon Duran returned to the scoresheet on Saturday as he netted the only goal of the game against Southampton to fire Villa to back-to-back wins.
Duran’s introduction into the team meant Ollie Watkins dropped down to the bench for the first time in the Premier League this campaign.
Emery admitted he is still working on a formula to start with both players.
“They are both very good strikers – each of them are different,” he added. “Watkins is getting more experiences with the national team and with us in Europe, being consistent, being competitive always in everything we need on the field.
“Another like Jhon Duran has big potential. He is progressively getting better. His adaptation started two years ago and it’s much better than the process we had.
“The commitment now for them is to try to understand each moment, playing more minutes or less, is very, very important. The next challenge I have is to play with both.
“We are trying and I will try again to play with both. We have to keep the balance, tactically, playing with both. The team is always first.”
Villa were knocked out in the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League last season by Olympiakos in their first European campaign in 13 years.
Emery is keen to use that experience for his side to go even further this year.
He said: “Our expectation at the beginning was to try to enjoy, try to use the experiences we had last year in Europe with another level.
“Even when we lost away against Brugge, it was very good to learn how difficult it is the challenge we faced last year and this year. Tomorrow is a new test. To be consistent as a team is our challenge.”
