Aston Villa: Unai Emery won’t fear Lille as new Europa Conference League development emerges
Aston Villa won’t “fear” facing Lille in the next round of the Europa Conference League following their results this season, according to Alan Hutton.
Emery’s side booked their place in the quarter-finals of the tournament with an excellent 4-0 win over Ajax at Villa Park and will now face Lille over two legs to try and secure their place in the final four of this term’s Conference League.
The French side currently sit fourth in Ligue 1, 16 points adrift of table toppers PSG but comfortably booked their place in the quarter-finals with a 4-1 aggregate win over Austrian Bundesliga side Sturm Graz.
While Hutton expects Paulo Fonseca’s side to provide Villa with a “difficult” European test, he doesn’t think Emery’s side will fazed by the prospect and still believes Villa will have what it takes to lift the trophy at the end of the season.
“I expect it to be difficult they’re doing well in the French league,” Hutton told Villa News.
“I’ve not really gone into depth about what the team’s like at this moment in time but I think from Villa’s point of view you wouldn’t have feared anyone.
“There are difficult ties in there. You look at the likes of Fenerbahce, I think they get the winner of Fenerbahce against Olympiacos, so it’s a difficult pathway if we’re going to make it all the way, I genuinely think they can win this competition.
“I don’t think they’ll fear anybody of course they won’t take them lightly but I don’t think they’ll fear them.”
Can Aston Villa and Unai Emery qualify for the Champions League and win the Europa Conference League?
As Hutton suggested, Villa are now in a place where teams won’t want to be facing Emery’s side as they will have seen them take down the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Ajax already this season with excellent performances.
Lille will back themselves to pick up a special result and book their place in the semi-finals, but it won’t be easy against a side with the likes of Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey pulling the strings as they have done all season.
Until this game comes around, however, Emery’s side face the small challenge of playing Wolves, Manchester City and Brentford in the Premier League. While success in Europe would be excellent, they have to try and improve their league form for the remainder of the run-in.
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton believes Villa may be put off of a move for one Arsenal star this summer after a new update
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