Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has admitted he made a mistake by playing two strikers against each other after his side suffered a 1-0 defeat at Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Wilfried Singo scored the only goal of the match after eight minutes as the Premier League side missed the chance to seal automatic qualification for the last 16.
They will now likely have to beat Celtic next week to secure their place in the top eight and skip the play-off round.
Emery started with Ollie Watkins up front but brought on Jhon Duran in place of Leon Bailey in the 57th minute as Villa searched for an equalizer.
“We have two good strikers. Playing with two strikers is my challenge. They are both very good players, but today it didn't work well,” Emery said after the match.
“I made a mistake when I decided to play with two strikers. Until that moment we were more or less in control of the game.”
FT from Monaco. pic.twitter.com/bjtOn4LyLn
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 21, 2025
Villa had four shots on target in the first half despite conceding a goal early on, but after the restart they were limited to just one shot on target and an expected goals figure (xG) of 0.46.
“I think we played 70 minutes the way I wanted. Of course the opponent also has a game plan. They were good in transition,” Emery said.
“We created three or four good chances to score. If we want to stay at this level, of course we have to take the chances we had. But despite that, I was more or less positive.
“The last twenty to twenty-five minutes we played with two attackers and we were not as threatening as the first seventy minutes.
“With two attackers we were not organized with the positioning as I wanted.”
Duran has scored 12 goals in all competitions this season, while Watkins has 10 goals and seven assists.
Villa, who were unbeaten in all competitions in their previous five matches, dropped to eighth place in the first phase of the Champions League with 13 points.
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