Unai Emery gives his verdict after Aston Villa handed Club Brugge return in Champions League
Unai Emery has warned Villa must learn the lessons from their first trip to Club Brugge as they prepare to face the Belgian club again in the Champions League.
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The teams will meet for the second time in this season’s competition, with Villa looking to avenge November’s 1-0 defeat in the league phase, a match made infamous by Tyrone Mings picking up a goal kick to concede a penalty.
Emery’s men now head back to Belgium for the first leg of a last-16 tie on Tuesday, March 4 (kick-off 5.45pm), before hosting the return leg on Wednesday, March 12 (8pm).
The Villa boss said: “We are happy we are in the last 16 and happy with the draw.
“Every team in the last 16 deserves to be there. We played against Brugge and we knew their capacity to compete like they usually do.
“We lost 1-0 there which is good information for us about how we have to compete, respect and prepare. Also avoid the mistakes we made.”
The draw also mapped out the possible route to the final for Unai Emery’s team, with either Liverpool or Paris St-Germain awaiting in the quarter-finals should they progress past Brugge.
PSV Eindhoven, Arsenal, Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid are Villa’s potential semi-final opponents. All three remaining Premier League teams ended up in the same half of the draw.
Villa, who qualified for the last-16 courtesy of a top-eight finish in the league phase, knew they would be facing either Brugge or Borussia Dortmund after both progressed through the play-off round.
Brugge scraped into the latter after finishing 24th in the league standings but then stunned Atalanta with a 5-2 aggregate play-off round win to set-up a rematch with Emery’s men.
Should Villa progress, they would be away in the first leg of their quarter-final with either Liverpool or PSG, before hosting the second leg. Those ties are due to take place in April.