Unai Emery hails Aston Villa’s mentality after their FA Cup third round victory against Middlesbrough and insists he felt his high-flyers were ‘always in control of the game’
Manager Unai Emery praised his team’s mentality after Aston Villa defeated Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Riverside in their FA Cup third-round match.
Thanks to Matty Cash’s deflected goal in the 87th minute, the Premier League’s top team advanced to the fourth round.
Villa threatened in the first fifteen minutes of the second half as John McGinn, Ezri Konsa, and Alex Moreno all went close from a series of corners. Villa had chances in the first half through Jhon Duran and Leander Dendoncker.
Cash eventually sent them through to the next round from a short corner in the final stages and Emery praised the maturity in his team to push for the winner.
‘We played big passions, being mature, I think we are growing up our mentality in matches like that,’ Emery said.
‘At the beginning we were favourite to win, but difficult to face each match.
‘They prepared and tactically they played a very good match and even when they were keeping more possession on the transition they threatened us.
Even after we had three chances in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half, we were always in control of the game. However, for the final fifteen or twenty minutes of the half, they were in control of the game better than us.
“We reacted again in the last minute because we took two or three chances and we scored one of them,” the player said. “We were being passionate and trying to keep in mind our gameplan.”
Prior to the Boro match, Emery disclosed that his team had discussed their FA Cup history after Villa was eliminated by Stevenage in the third round of the cup the previous year.
We were speaking before the match about the FA Cup, a very historic cup competition, maybe the best cup competition in the world,’ Emery added.
‘We’re speaking about our players, how much they were successful in this competition – not a lot! Only Emiliano (Martinez) and Calum Chambers won with Arsenal.
‘A long time Aston Villa was successful in this competition with seven titles.
‘Of course we are here trying to do another step ahead in this club, trying to play facing different competition and trying to be contending to get something.’
Carabao Cup semi-finalists Middlesbrough missed out on another cup run, but still had their opportunities in the game as Alex Bangura created some good chances and Morgan Rogers tested Martinez.
Cash’s late strike came as a cruel blow to Michael Carrick’s side, who had defended well throughout, but the Boro boss was ‘so proud’ of their performance.
He said: ‘I thought the whole game, to be honest, was good. Really happy with them at half-time.
“They had a little bit more of the game in the second half, but overall, I thought they were fantastic, the boys, I’m so proud of them, given the circumstances against the team we were playing against.”
We occasionally played some excellent football to play that pressure, and we certainly had more opportunities to create chances than there were real chances, but we still looked threatening enough to win the game. Tactically, they were perfect in terms of their discipline and attention.
Leave a Reply