Unai Emery hails spirit of Aston Villa players in ‘Fortress’ after FA Cup win


Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted with the fight his players showed in their comeback win over West Ham in the FA Cup.

The Villans found themselves 1-0 down early on through a Lucas Paqueta strike, but showed resilience in the second half to turn the tie in their favour.

Amadou Onana scored the equalizer in the 71st minute and Morgan Rodgers grabbed the winner five minutes later.

Overall the Spanish head coach was pleased but also said there was room for improvement after conceding early again.

He said: “Happy, but we were trying to set a goal not to concede an easy goal, but we did it again early on.

But we gave a good response. We more or less didn’t take chances again. The players showed our desire to do something in the competition.

“We are conceding many goals, but our most important objective is to win.

“We try to be strong here, to have a fortress. We’ve done what we’ve done all season. We responded well and controlled the game to a lesser extent.

“Of course it is very important which team we face later today. But now we are focused, because we are in three competitions and we want to get something in the Champions League, the Premier League and now the FA Cup.

Matchwinner Morgan Rodgers made a statement of intent in his post-match interview.

He believes the club can win the coveted trophy and end their drought.

Rodgers said: “A bit of belief, we were a bit more patient. There was more forward thinking.

“We created chances, a bit more mayhem in the final third, and that’s where our goals came from.

“We know we can come back against anybody. We will look to improve the start of the games, but we are happy with the way we finished it.

“Why can’t we win it? Anything can happen in a cup competition. You don’t know who you’re going to draw, where you’re going to play.”





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