Emery: Barcelona exploited our mistakes in build-up play, and we must learn from defeat

Unai Emery, Aston Villa's head coach, spoke about his team's loss to FC Barcelona, stating that the result does not meet his ambitions. However, he believes that the match will provide his players with important lessons that will help them develop and compete better in the UEFA Champions League.

Emery said: "The picture we showed without achieving a positive result does not satisfy us either. It is true that we are still in the process of building the team, and this match should help us continue to develop. We need to learn and draw lessons and understand how to compete better so that we can get closer to the teams expected to win. We must be able to keep up with teams like FC Barcelona."

He added: "We had clear chances to score, but we didn't manage to take advantage of them today. FC Barcelona exploited some of our mistakes while building play from the back, but this is our idea, to draw the opponent to press us. The main issue was that we struggled in the duels with their centre-backs pushing forward. We need to be able to win more of these duels."

He continued: "We played a match that will give us a lot of information to become better in the competition we are in. We had clear chances after the first goal we conceded, and if we had managed to equalise, the match would have started again."

He continued: "I was optimistic even after going two goals down, but after the third goal, our chances became more difficult, and the game calmed down in terms of the possibility of a comeback."

Emery concluded his statements by saying: "Our development process goes through playing matches like these; we prioritize competing in the UEFA Champions League and proving our place in it, and we have shown periods of the match at a good level against one of the teams favored to win the tournament."