Emery Cautioned of Bologna Challenge as Villa Boss; Champions League Ambitions Revealed

With two victories under their belt in the Champions League group stage, Villa is gearing up for a challenging match on Tuesday evening.

Emery is aware that Bologna will go all out to try and get a result, and he knows his team must be prepared.

He told reporters: "They are being successful the last years, of course. They are a team with a huge history in Italy.

"Last year, they played fantastic with Thiago Motta, and they signed a new coach. He was successful, playing the last two finals in the Conference League. They are keeping the same more or less players and the same more or less successful way. They deserve more points than they have now.

"They have started with a new coach who is really playing very well in combination and defensively, being aggressive. They played a fantastic match against Liverpool and they deserved more against Liverpool.

"They face, then, more or less competing in the same way, and tomorrow I think for them - because they only have one point - will be a very difficult match for us. They are going to push, they are going to try to get a point tomorrow, because of course it is only game three, but they need points, as we need.

"We are really respecting them a lot, but we are going to try tomorrow to play with the same motivation we played the last match, and the same we played with our supporters in Villa Park, pushing a lot. Respecting them is the first way. We can do it, we want to win."

Of his Champions League ambitions, he added: "I have my own experiences in Europe - in the Europa League and Conference League and Champions League - and we have started facing, those teams we played, showing our capacity to adapt quick for this competition, and adapting because we are getting individually and collectively the performances this competition demands (from) us.

"We believe, working like we are doing, we can keep it, and this is the challenge. This is really my objective now. We are fourth in the Premier League, we are with two wins in the Champions League. I want it, and I want to try to be always winning more matches than losing and trying to work hard to keep it for a long time.

"Each match, for me, is very important, how we are deeply preparing and deeply being demanding to beat the opponent in the heightened level we are facing. Last year in the Conference League it was the first experiences here with the players, with the club, with us, and this year with the Champions League.

"Tomorrow, we will play, hopefully, showing again we believe we can compete. I don’t know how far we are going to get, but in this moment now, we are here, in a good position, in the Premier League and Champions League."