Unai Emery: “I’m not Europa League king” | OneFootball

Unai Emery is playing for his fifth Europa League crown when Aston Villa face SC Freiburg in the Europa League final on Wednesday. The Spaniard won this competition in three consecutive seasons with Sevilla before adding his fourth when Villarreal were triumphant five years ago.

“I am not the king of this competition,” said the former PSG and Arsenal coach in his pre-game press conference. “I don’t want to speak about the things we did before. This is the reason I am trying to answer all the questions about Aston Villa. This is a new opportunity. I hope this is just the start of a new era for Aston Villa."

Since the 54-year-old coach replaced Steven Gerrard at Villa Park, the club reached the latter stages of all three European competitions. Emery stressed the need to respect opponents ahead of the showdown for this season’s Europa League.

“We must respect the competition, and respect Freiburg. We must show how much we want this competition because it is clear that Freiburg want it and they are so excited. We must match or even better their motivation. Freiburg, they are here because they deserve it."