Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is very happy that he sent his side to a quarterfinals of the Champions League, but now wants even more if they are confronted with a discouraging collision with Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa defeated Club Brugge 3-0 in Villa Park on Wednesday to go through their last 16 draw as 6-1 total winners against the Belgian side.
De Villans are the ninth other English side to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League-the most teams of a single nation to reach this phase of the competition.
“It is very important for our club to be in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Something we should be proud of,” Emery said to Paris Saint-Germain.
“We are at this level. We have to be proud, but we want more. We want to compete against the best teams in the world. Now our priority to try to be close to the level we are confronted with.”
Emery, who has won the Europa League four times, said that PSG would be formidable opponents after they had defeated Liverpool to set up the quarter -finals collision.
“Of course it is fantastic to play a quarterfinals. We are very enthusiastic, very motivated,” he said.
“Playing against PSG is very difficult. They showed their capacity against Liverpool, the best team in the Premier League, the best team in Europe until yesterday.”
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The Villa manager, who was PSG coach from 2016-18, was disappointed with the first half of his side against Bruges in the second stage of their knockout when they did not score after the visitors had sent a man.
But it all worked out well with three goals after the break for a thunderous aggregated victory.
Villa has won seven of their 10 games in the Champions League this season (D1 L2)-Allen Lazio and Valencia (both 8 in 1999-00) have won more games in their debut campaign in the competition.
“I am very happy how we participated in the two competitions,” he said.
Emery excluded Marco Asensio for praise after his second half when he came up as a replacement.
“We are happy with him,” said the Spaniard. “We protect him because he is not 100 percent, but today he felt good.
“He wanted to start the game, but I decided to protect him. He played the moment we needed him and he took the responsibility to do his job and score goals.”
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