Unai Emery lauds Marcus Rashford quality after matching Man Utd record | OneFootball

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is hopeful that the quality and experience of winter arrivals Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford can shine through in this week's crucial Champions League clash with Club Brugge.

The club's two fresh recruits have made an immediate impact at Villa Park. Asensio nabbed a brace in the FA Cup fifth-round triumph over Cardiff City last Friday, the first of which was teed up by Rashford.

The former Manchester United forward created six chances in that one-sided win - a figure never surpassed throughout his 426-game career at Old Trafford, per Opta. Since making his debut in claret and blue, an apparently rejuvenated Rashford has teed up more shots across all competitions than another other Premier League player (13).

Ahead of Villa's trip to Brugge in the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday night, Emery was full of praise for Rashford and Asensio. "Always we are trying to improve the team and the squad, add with different qualities of the players," he told assembled media.

Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford have already fostered a strong relationship on the pitch / Neal Simpson/Allstar/GettyImages

"We added players with experiences of this competition and usually they are players playing in the highest level. They will help us a lot. The process they are doing, adapting with us is going well and getting better and how we want to try to use them in our structure.

"Football is collectively, and then how we can help each player to play in our structure and to help us, we’re not going to get our objective through individual players, it will be collectively building our structure as strong as possible.

"This is a challenge I have, this is the challenge for the players and each one they has their objective as well. Hopefully we can share together in this process and in the next three months our objective collectively and then help the players achieve their objectives."

Together with Rashford (who boasts 12 goals in 33 Champions League appearances) and Asenso, a three-time winner of the competition with Real Madrid, Emery also has plenty of experience in Europe's elite. Aston Villa will be the fourth different club the Spanish coach has led into the Champions League knockout stages. Only three other managers - Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri - can better that record.