Unai Emery has suggested that he is already looking ahead to taking Aston Villa to the next level after their agonising Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain at the quarter-final stage, despite winning 3-2 in the second leg.
The Premier League outfit went into Tuesday night's fixture trailing 3-1 on aggregate and soon found themselves a further two goals adrift to a ruthless Luis Enrique outfit.
However, in response to Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes getting on the scoresheet, a deflected Youri Tielemans strike before half time gave Villa a glimmer of hope.
John McGinn and Ezri Konsa would move Villa to within one goal of levelling up the tie, but Gianluigi Donnarumma stood firm to repel the best efforts of the home side during the final half-hour.
As a result, a defeated and deflated Villa bow out at the last-eight stage and miss out on a semi-final showdown with either Arsenal or Real Madrid.
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What did Emery have to say?
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the match, Emery hinted that he had mixed emotions, praising his players while, at the same time, admitting that Villa have another step to go to match the quality of a side such as PSG.
The Spaniard said: "I am very proud of everything. Getting to this level is the next step forward, I want to try to win with Aston Villa. We played two legs, we competed well and it wasn't even. Today we competed better and we were close to the result. I want to try to work for my next process at Aston Villa. The crowd was fantastic, they gave us energy. Even at 2-0. Still, a little bit more to do better to try to get it.
"Every player at this level has a huge level to play and to try and be a protagonist. We were a protagonist as well with our skills. We were focused on our game plan. I was thinking only to play out game plan and be consistent. We were attacking and those transitions, they were clinical. We knew it. We tried to avoid transition and today we took the new game plan and were pushing more.
"It is now most important to get Europe again. The most important competition is the Champions League. The challenge we have for the last six matches is to try and get Europe and the Champions League."
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What next for Villa?
Villa must quickly turn their attention back to Premier League matters as they play host to Newcastle United on Saturday evening.
With the Magpies facing Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, there is the potential for the visitors to Villa Park to arrive in the West Midlands sitting in third position in the Premier League table, five points clear of their hosts.
Three days later, Villa make the trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City, another rival in the race for a top-five spot, before they travel to Wembley Stadium to meet Palace in the FA Cup semi-finals on April 26.
Darren Plant
