Unai Emery Praises Aston Villa’s Determination in Vital Europa League Win Over Basel

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery expressed his admiration for his side’s determination after they battled to secure a crucial 2–1 victory away to Basel in the Europa League.

Evann Guessand opened the scoring with his second goal of the European campaign, giving Villa an early advantage. The hosts, however, responded strongly. Leo Leroy had an effort ruled out for offside before Flavius Daniliuc eventually drew Basel level shortly afterwards.

Emery introduced Youri Tielemans for Matty Cash at the start of the second half, and the Belgian midfielder made an immediate impact. Just eight minutes after coming on, Tielemans restored Villa’s lead with a well-taken finish, ultimately securing the side’s eighth consecutive victory in all competitions.

The win guarantees Villa at least a play-off place and keeps them three points clear in the automatic qualification positions, with two matches still to play.

Emery acknowledged beforehand that the fixture would be demanding, especially against a side who had won their previous seven Europa League home matches.

Speaking to TNT Sports, he said:

“We knew before the match the difficulties we were facing. After our last match and the talk following our victory against Arsenal, it is not easy to recover and maintain the same structure and mentality to keep working hard.

“We struggled today and, in the last 10 minutes, they were close to equalising. But I am happy with how we played for almost the full 90 minutes and how we achieved this victory.

“I know it’s difficult to beat them here because they had won their last seven matches at home.

“Our plan at the start of the season was to manage every player, give them opportunities to play, help us, and feel comfortable within our structure. I like how they are responding and how we are developing each player within our team system.

“In the final 15 minutes, they pushed very hard and fought for every duel. We needed our players to fight in the same way — and they did.”

Tielemans, who endured a disrupted start to the season due to a calf injury, has produced a series of high-quality performances since returning to fitness. Coming off the bench, the 28-year-old opened his account for the season with a decisive strike.

He admitted that the overall display was far from perfect but insisted the three points were all that mattered.

He said:

“The pitch was not the best, and you could see from our game that it wasn’t as fluent as it could have been. We could have done better in certain phases, but going home with a win is really good.

“The space was there for me to shoot at the near post, so I tried to place it and keep it as low as possible. Their first goal conceded came from that side, so I thought that if I hit it there, it might help because I saw the goalkeeper had an injury.

“Where we are now is very good. We have two more games — away at Fenerbahce and at home to Salzburg. They will be difficult, but we want to win both and see where we are.”