Fixtures
- Young Boys Vs. Aston Villa – Tue, Sep 17th 2024, 17:45
Unai Emery dedicated Aston Villa’s maiden Champions League victory to club legend Gary Shaw.
Shaw, who passed away on the eve of the game, was a major part of Villa’s European Cup triumph in 1982 and played in the club’s last outing in the continent’s top competition 41 years ago.
After watching his side beat BSC Young Boys 3-0 in Bern, Emery’s post-match thoughts were of Shaw.
“First of all, this victory is for Gary Shaw,” he said.
“We can follow in the Champions League, winning like they [1982 team] finished and we want to celebrate this victory and dedicate it to Gary Shaw and the Aston Villa family.
“It’s always difficult away and our experiences last year show it. We played focussing very well in 90 minutes and being consistent, respecting them.
“They started pushing in the first 15 minutes. We defended well and were progressively adapting to the pitch.
“We imposed our capacity to beat them, always respecting them.”
Villa put in a superb display in Switzerland to sweep aside the home team, with Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana bagging the goals.
It was the perfect start to the league phase, and Emery wants his players to continue pushing forward as they build their way into the competition.
He said: “The most important thing is the process we are doing here. Some players don’t have experiences at the level of the Champions League and others do.
“We have to build and create a new way. The way we created last year in the Conference League was fantastic, even if we didn’t get to the final.
“We are using the experiences we are adding to do our best playing in the Champions League, starting with the respect we have for every team and with playing away always being very difficult.
“Our supporters are following us here and helping us. We have to be strong and be together even when we are playing away from Villa Park.”
