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Jul 17, 2023

'For me, it’s very important to be in Europe'

Unai Emery highlighted the importance of playing in Europe after Aston Villa qualified for the group stages of the Europa Conference League. Villa will play in the group stages of a European

Unai Emery highlighted the importance of playing in Europe after Aston Villa qualified for the group stages of the Europa Conference League.

Villa will play in the group stages of a European competition for the first time since 2009 after beating Hibernian 8-0 over two play-off legs.

Speaking after Thursday's game at Villa Park, Emery said: "I’m very, very happy because we are finishing last season by qualifying for the group stage.

"For me, it’s very important to be in Europe; I think for the club as well and the supporters.

"We can enjoy and be excited about a new way in Europe since 2008-09 when Aston Villa last played in the group stage in Europe.

"We won the tie in Scotland, but the supporters were with us today and the stadium was full. We really enjoyed it.

"For us, it’s about trying to keep the same atmosphere we created last season in the Premier League.

"Today, everything was thinking about finishing last season because we hadn’t qualified for Europe directly.

"We needed to finish like we did today. The performance was good. We wanted to qualify being consistent, building our idea and our style to control the game.

“We got a clean sheet and the result was very good. Now we are going to think about Liverpool on Sunday."