Aston Villa received a triple injury boost on Wednesday for their Champions League last 16 second -stage with Club Brugge on Villa Park.
Unai Emery, who spoke on Tuesday, said that Marco Asensio, Amadou Onana and Emiliano Martinez would return after missing their 1-0 win over Brentford on Saturday.
Indeed, it was the late penalty from Asensio that set off a late two goals for the Villans in the first stage, after he had seen the opener of Leon Bailey are canceled by Maxim de Cuyper.
The Spaniard has now scored 10 Champions League goals in 50 games as a replacement (both more than any other player).
As a starter in 20 games, he scored three goals of 46 shots (6.5%), compared to 10 goals of 49 shots as a sub (20.4%), and Emery said Asensio could play a different role of the bank.
“(Asensio and Martinez) are both in the team, Onana is also coming back,” Emery said a press conference.
However, Ross Barkley, Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia are all left with their own respective injury problems.
Villa could be the ninth other English side to qualify for a quarterfinals of the Champions League, and it would appear their first last eight in more than 40 years.
They also want to be the first side to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League in their debut season since Atalanta in 2019-2020.
Chelsea in 1999-00, Leeds in 2000-01, Liverpool in 2001-02, Tottenham in 2010-11 and Leicester City in 2016-17 are the five other English teams to achieve the performance.
Although Villa has an advantage of two goals in the draw, Emery said that he and his players would not take their leadership on his way to the game.
“The competition can change so quickly. The respect (we have) of them is huge,” Emery said.
“(We must) follow the same game plan. We are ready to compete, (also) in case there are extra time and fines.”
Villa is advanced from 12 of their previous 14 major European ties when they won the first stage and also won the European Cup in 1981-82.
If they progress on Wednesday, they will be confronted in the quarterfinals with six times winners Liverpool or Ligue 1-leaders Paris Saint-Germain.
“The challenge we have in the Champions League is a huge (one),” Emery added.
“To achieve something like a club and for the supporters. Something for history and for us as professionals.
“To (do) it is the challenge to think that everything can happen. We have to follow the same idea as before.
“The result is 3-1, but they can score and we have experiences against Celtic, when we won 2-0 and we pulled in five minutes.”
Comments