Unai Emery sends away day warning as Aston Villa target Club Brugge revenge
Unai Emery has warned Villa must improve their away form if they are to enjoy a deep run in this season’s Champions League.
Villa kick-off the knockout phase on Tuesday night when they visit Club Brugge in the first leg of a last-16 tie.
The Belgian hosts claimed a 1-0 win at the Jan Breydel Stadion when the teams met in the league phase in November, one of several underwhelming results on the road this season.
Speaking in Belgium on Monday night, Emery said: “Playing away, I think the results we have in the last 12 matches, we lost nine and won three. Of course, those are not very good results.
“But getting balance, we are feeling very strong at home. We played 23 matches and lost two only.
“We are feeling strong and consistent at home but not feeling it away. In this competition we won at Young Boys, lost at Brugge, won at Leipzig and lost at Monaco.
“That is a good balance in the competition because we got top-eight but tomorrow we have to do something better than we did.
“We have to be stronger in our consistency than we did before here in Brugge. Hopefully we can feel strong and comfortable, trying to face them with our capacity.”
The first thing Emery wants is a much-improved performance compared to Villa’s first meeting with Brugge.
November’s defeat was their first in the competition after winning their first three league matches and the boss hinted his team may have overlooked their opponents, who beat Atalanta in the play-off round to set up a rematch.
“To compete is one thing you have to do in every match you are playing,” said Emery. “When we analysed the match here, they played fantastic football but we didn’t compete like I usually want.
“To be consistent competing is the most important. To try to be focused and get our objective through our players, getting the best from their mentality and individual skills is the key.
“When we played here we did not compete. We did not compete like I wanted to. The players know. Hopefully we can do tomorrow.
“We know them better and can try to compete stopping them and then trying to get the best of us in our structure and gameplan.”
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