Unai Emery expressed his thoughts on the targets for Aston Villa.

The Villans have finally won back-to-back games in all competitions: a 1-0 win against Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday followed a 6-0 rout of Fenerbahçe on Wednesday.

‘We can have our opportunity to be there’

Emery’s men are still stuck in the mid-table region, and the Basque boss will not be willing to see his record of constant qualification for continental competition be broken without a fight. But the group are rebuilding well enough to give him belief objectives can be hit domestically and in Europe.

In the Champions League, the first checkpoint is a top-eight finish to qualify for the Round of 16 from the league phase. It was an aim achieved two years ago, and the Villans have the same ambition.

Emery on building a structure

“We’re happy, we believe in how we are building a structure with the players we have. Some players adapted quicker than others, but we need every player, we need to continue working, not relaxing.

“We are under our expectation in Premier League. We are in Champions League, performing well and getting good results, but tomorrow we can’t relax in 90 minutes in nothing, because we must be so, so organised, so, so focused, so, so involving in how we need to improve things, how we are working inside in the meetings, in the practice, in each match, how we are playing to try to get better.

“And we can’t forget, we won last week against Fenerbahçe at home, but we were not winning before.

“And tomorrow, again, we must try to be aware about how difficult the match is and how we must get inside the pitch in 90 minutes, our best collective and individual performance and attitude.

“The message is respect. Respect the competition, respect Europe, the difficulties in Europe to be like we are now with six points, but to keep it for the next matches. To be in the top eight, we are not favourites, or even we are not contenders, because there are a lot of teams in front of us for it, but in case we are getting points like we did, tomorrow, of course, we can have our opportunity to be there.

“The last two years, we achieved it, Champions League two years ago, top eight, last year, top eight as well, but now, a lot of teams, the favourite teams to be in the top eight, they are trying to avoid the mistakes they made maybe two years ago. Of course, two years ago, one example, Manchester City against Real Madrid. One of those teams, they were out.

“This is the importance for them and for us as well, to try to be in the top eight. We are not favourites, we are not contenders, but tomorrow we have a very good opportunity to try to play, to try to compete, to try to win, to try to keep improving our things.