Emery reveals key Aston Villa man could return for Europa League semi-final | OneFootball

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has revealed that Amadou Onana is in contention to feature against Nottingham Forest on Thursday night.

After suffering a knock, the midfielder was absent at the weekend as Villa succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against Fulham. However, the Belgium international could return in the first leg of the all-English Europa League semi-final tie.

“We train this afternoon, and we will see how he is responding,” said Emery. “If he’s feeling good to play tomorrow.

“He was testing yesterday and today we must test again how he is feeling, and how we can get the players with some pain to play tomorrow.”

Villa will travel to the City Ground for the first leg of the tie. Although Forest are battling for survival in the Premier League, that has not impacted their European form this season.

“I think I expect it to be a long match,” Villa’s boss explained. “Because they are performing really good. They are now playing with confidence, the last two matches were really amazing. They have won and scoring four goals and five goals in the matches they played.

“In the Europa League, the way they are doing it as well. And in a very, very competitive way. How they played the last two rounds against Porto and against Midtjylland, they compete fantastic, even with the tight result, but they compete fantastic.

“And I expect a very difficult match. I expect a very intelligent match for them, and hopefully, of course, we must play intelligent, and then compete, and try to enjoy.”

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