John McGinn reveals what cost Aston Villa Europa Conference final spot
Skipper John McGinn felt Villa paid the price for a poor first leg showing as they suffered Europa Conference League semi-final heartbreak.
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Villa were beaten 2-0 by Olympiacos in Thursday's second leg to lose 6-2 on aggregate as their dreams of ending a 28-year trophy drought were extinguished.
Unai Emery's men dominated possession in Greece but the hosts were more clinical, Ayoub El Kaabi adding a brace to his first leg hat-trick.
McGinn told TNT Sports: "Believe it or not we actually started the game very well. The first half was a really good performance by us, but over the two legs very, very disappointing obviously.
"We went into this competition of favourites and we handled that throughout the competition.
"I think it has been a big learning curve for us. It's not been a smooth journey, we got to the semi-final and were down to the bare bones a wee bit. However those of us that were out there across the two legs lost to the better team and the scoreline shows that."
Villa were boosted by the return of goalkeeper Emi Martinez to fitness but were without several other first-team players.
Asked if injuries had finally caught up with them, McGinn replied: "Possibly. Possibly. The manager drills into us that is is a no excuse environment. Listen you want everyone available, you want your best players there. When you are in the trenches, someone you can turn to in order to change the game or do something different.
"Tonight I think the game plan was perfect in the first half. We've got to be really proud of how we played. The goal was extremely disappointing. The tie was unfortunately lost in the first leg - we didn't control the game or manage it well enough, the performance was poor.
"For us going into more European competition next season we need to learn how to manage moments a lot better. Of course we wanted to do better this year and get to a European final but we will do everything we can to get ourselves back into this position and get to a final. "
Unai Emery said: "We have to accept it’s not enough.
"We have to be disappointed a little bit, and frustrated a little bit and be quick to focus on Monday.
"We have to accept it and try to understand our process and how we can improve.
