Aston Villa coach Unai Emery wants to write a ‘new chapter’ in the Europa League. Tonight he and his team will face Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals.
Tonight it will be a match at the City Ground in Nottingham between two former winners of the European Cup I, now the Champions League. Aston Villa won that tournament in 1982, Nottingham Forest won the 1979 and 1980 editions.
“They have their history and we have our history,” Emery said in the run-up to the match in Nottingham. “But it is not recent. At the moment, both teams want to try to continue to do something important in Europe.”
In the Premier League, Villa is well on its way to qualifying for the Champions League with fifth place, while Nottingham Forest is still fighting against relegation. Forest did good business on Friday with a 0-5 victory in Sunderland. “I think they feel confident because of their momentum,” Emery said.
The first leg is tonight at the City Ground in Nottingham, the return next week at Villa Park in Birmingham. Aston Villa will play at home against Tottenham Hotspur, number 18 in the Premier League, on Sunday evening (8 p.m.). Nottingham Forest will play the away match at Chelsea on Monday (4 p.m.). Forest are five points above Spurs.
The Basque trainer has already won the Europa League four times as a trainer: three times in a row with Sevilla (2014, 2015 and 2016) and once with Villarreal (2021). In addition, Emery won seven trophies in France in his two seasons as coach of Paris Saint-Germain.
Other semi-finals
The other Europa League semi-final is between Sporting Braga and SC Freiburg, with the first leg in the north of Portugal.
The first matches in the semi-finals will also be played in the Conference Leagues tonight. Rayo Vallecano plays in the Estadio de Vallecas in Madrid in front of 14,000 fans against RC Strasbourg Alsace, the club of Dutch international Emmanuel Emegha. The other half is between Shakhtar Donetsk and Crystal Palace, two clubs that were too strong for AZ at the third level in Europe this season.
