Unai Emery was unhappy with his side’s performance as Aston Villa lost 3-2 to Legia Warsaw in their opening group game.
Villa’s first group game since December 2008, ended the exact same way as the last, a defeat away from home.
It took just three minutes for the hosts to open the scoring as Pawel Wszolek haunted the Villains once again.
Jhon Duran bought the scores level just minutes later with a great improvisational header.
The scores were level for just 20 minutes as Ernest Muci latched on to a deflected cross to tap in from close range.
Villa were backlevel through Luca Digne before halftime after his half-volley was deflected into the top corner.
Just six minutes after halftime, Muci scored again in what would ultimately be the winning goal.
What did Unai Emery say after Legia Warsaw?
Despite being third in the Polish league, Legia are a side that has lost just one of their last 22 games.
Emery was under no illusion about the challenge: “Difficult, tough and they were very excited. They were playing with their best performance.
“They only lost one match, won 21 or 22. That was the consequence of the match we watched.”
Clearly a solid team, but with the quality Villa had on the pitch, there aren’t any excuses.
Speaking further on the opponents, he said: ” They have as well very good players, a plan in the game. They did good and we couldn’t stop them in some moments.”
Emery was clearly unhappy, visibly angry in several clips circulating online.
When asked about why his team lost, the Spaniard explained: “The bad moments came when we didn’t control the rhythm. They exploited opportunities with space in behind. We concede chances like that.”
Despite it being a disappointing loss, the Villa boss wants to focus on the future now.
On the group stage, he said: “The most important is to come back and win the next matches in the group.
“I really like to play matches being important when you lost one match like tonight. That is the experience I have.”
A disappointing performance and loss on the road, but one game in, better to get it out of their system now and bring the players back down to Earth.
