Unai Emery explains the 'only way' for Aston Villa after win over Club Brugge

Unai Emery was delighted to see his new-look Aston Villa squad take another step forward after beating Club Brugge 3-2 to open their Champions League campaign.

John McGinn opened the scoring in the first half, before Emi Buendia restored Villa’s lead shortly after they were pegged back by Jan Virgili.

Nicolas Jackson then scored his first goal for the club before the break, but Brugge were more dominant in the second period and reduced their deficit through Nicolo Tresoldi from the penalty spot.

Villa held on to their lead to end their winless run, with Emery asked afterwards if he was proud of the way his team had worked hard for the victory.

“The hard work is even when we are not winning. I am so, so happy today and thankful because we know how we are in the way with the responsibility we and I have,” Emery explained.

“The players have a responsibility too, the older players need to guide to keep our standard high, to show everybody that this is the only way to achieve our targets. We are improving after Brighton and after Hull City.

“Today was another step forward. We must work hard - it is the only way. This is the process that we must try to set. Today we did one very important step forward, being resilient when we were struggling.

“The subs impacted the game well and we regained control of the game. Brugge are strong and confident here. We did a very complete match, competing in 90 minutes. It is very important to start this Champions League campaign with three points. Now, after this match we are going to move the Champions League until after the break.”

Emery added: “Yesterday we were training and we were being demanding, playing a small match. Even then we had a lack of goals. Please, each one [players] be demanding to score in the small goals in training.

“Show your wishes to score goals. We started well and created chances early. We needed a lot of duels and runs in behind. We lacked runs in behind against Hull, but today we did it more.

“John McGinn’s was a very important goal and Nicolas Jackson’s first goal is important for him. We are getting minutes for other players, like with Wan-Bissaka, but he was so tired after 60 minutes as it was his first game for a long time.

“George Hemmings is improving and keeping in 90 minutes with good balance. We must now add more new players in this process that we are in.”