Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has expressed satisfaction with the performances of his players, following their victory over Feyenoord on Thursday night.
The English side made it two wins from two games, as they defeated their hosts 2-0 in their second Europa League match of the season.
Emery had urged his side to improve on their results after a slow start to the season and his side have now responded in the best possible way with three consecutive victories.
They followed up their 1-0 win over Bologna in their Europa League opener with a 3-1 comeback win over Fulham last weekend, earning their first league win of the season.
On Thursday night, they started on the front foot and were unlucky not to have a man advantage early in the game.
The centre referee issued a yellow card to Feyenoord’s Anel Ahmedhodzic for a last-man challenge on Ollie Watkins and although VAR reviewed the incident, the referee stood by his decision.
The referee denied Feyenoord a goal in the first half, ruling that Matty Cash had been fouled in the buildup.
After replacing Emiliano Martinez, who suffered an injury during warmups, Marco Bizot delivered a string of top saves to keep his side level.
However in the second half, the visitors came out firing and after Evan Guessand struck the post, Emi Buendia and John McGinn scored to put their side 2-0 ahead.
The game ended with that scoreline as Villa moved to six points from two games in a fast start to the Europa League campaign.
Emery hails Villa’s fighting spirit
After a slow start to the season, Unai Emery had challenged his side to improve and get better.
The win over Feyenoord makes it three straight wins for Villa and Emery could not hide his admiration after the match.
“My expectation was, more or less, tough – like the match [was]. How we were ready to compete and be resilient was very important. The test we had today was a fantastic test”, Emery said.
“I’m so proud of how the players responded.”
