John McGinn says Aston Villa must learn from Euro heartache after Olympiacos crush their hopes of reaching the Europa Conference League final

John McGinn bemoaned Aston Villa’s lack of know-how as their dreams of reaching a first European final since 1982 were ended by Olympiacos.

Villa needed to overturn a 4-2 deficit from the home leg to progress to the Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina but had the worst possible start when Ayoub El Kaabi – the hat-trick hero from the first leg – put Olympiacos in front after 10 minutes. 

El Kaabi made it five goals across the tie when he added the second late on.

Villa are in a strong position to qualify for next season’s Champions League and will hope that this experience stands them in good stead.

McGinn said: ‘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.

John McGinn bemoaned Aston Villa’s lack of know-how after semi-final exit

Ayoub El Kaabi struck twice as Olympiacos booked place in Europa Conference League final

‘We went into this competition of favourites and we handle 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 without eight first-teamers for this match and asked whether injuries had caught up with them, McGinn added: ‘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.’