Fixtures
- Ajax Vs. Aston Villa – Thu, Mar 7th 2024, 18:45
Unai Emery spoke to local, national and international media on Wednesday evening to preview Aston Villa’s Europa Conference League tie against Ajax.
The club’s head coach sat down at the Johan Cruijff ArenA shortly after landing in Amsterdam and discussed our Round of 16 tie, facing the Dutch club, balancing domestic and European ambitions, the fitness of Jacob Ramsey and more.
Here’s what he had to say…
On Ajax…
“Ajax have all my respect, they are an historic club, they’ve had great experiences in Europe.
“Now, maybe, three or four years ago they were playing in the semi-finals of the Champions League and they were very close to playing in the final.
“They are always promoting a lot of young players, exploiting talent a lot here. They have sold a lot of players before, being successful with them.
“Now, I assume they are going to play with young players, maybe in the next year, or two years or in the future they are going to be very important players.
“My respect is because I think they are not having a very consistent season this year but they are progressively getting better.
“And, of course, for them to play here with their supporters at home.
“Tomorrow, I think they are going to play with a great atmosphere here supporting them and they are going to show their best performance.”
On balancing objectives in Europe and the Premier League…
“We have to try to play both competitions now, being consistent and having a clear objective to try and get something important.
“The Premier League is 38 matches and we’re now in fourth position. It’s a very good opportunity to try to compete.
“Now we’re focusing, like we did before in the group stages of the Conference League, because to play in Europe for us is very important.
“Last year we made a very big effort to play in the Conference League, and we have to try to be consistent here.
“And, of course, with our supporters try to do one way, hopefully enjoying it at the end of the season.”
On Jacob Ramsey…
“He is not available for tomorrow.
“He doesn’t have a big injury, but we have to wait every day to see how he is progressing to be available for the next match on Sunday.
“But it’s good news it’s not again a big injury like he had before.”
On wanting big European nights like this with Aston Villa…
“Yes, yes, yes.
“I like to play in Europe, I am trying to transmit to the players as well, Europe is always very, very difficult.
“For me, I’m very excited in a motivated way to achieve something here in Europe, like I did before.
“But the most important thing is trying to get prestige playing in Europe, playing in different countries, different football cultures.
“To play against a team like Ajax, for me, this is my first time I’m here. I’ve played in Europe 16 years in a row but I’ve never played here.
“I’m motivated to play here in this stadium against Ajax Amsterdam, and with Aston Villa I want to share and take a moment for myself, it’s very important in my career.
“Tomorrow is a very good opportunity to prepare the match and get our good performance here, building our team and trying to beat Ajax Amsterdam.”
