Aston Villa’s John McGinn, speaking to TNT Sports: “Delighted. It was a slow first half, personally as well trying to get back up to speed. It wasn’t a pretty performance, but the main thing is we are in the quarter-final.”
On Emi Martinez’s pass for his goal and Jadon Sancho’s performance: “It was brilliant from Emi, but it highlights Jadon’s performance, his best in a Villa shirt. He was man of the match tonight by a mile. The manager was giving me grief before the game to make sure I got in the box, and he gave it to me.
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“They defended very well in the first half, but we did go a bit more direct in the second half. The manager tweaked it, and it paid dividends.”
On his return from injury: “It is difficult when the team is not doing well, and you’re in the physio room. I got over it pretty quickly, I knew it could have been more serious and I just wanted to do my rehab properly. I’ve made mistakes before, trying to cut corners with rehab, but I didn’t do that this time.”
On goal targets this season: “I never used to set goal targets, but the manager sets targets on the forward players. I want to try to target 10 goals every season. I’ve not managed to do that yet, but hopefully this season is the year. It is up on us forward players and wide players to take the pressure off Ollie [Watkins].”
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On Emiliano Martinez: “He’s a mad man. I know he’s a family man, but he is a big kid inside, a lively character and a top goalkeeper, but even at 2-0 he made a great save.
“It was great to get a clean sheet, a good performance and send the Villa fans home happy. Hopefully it is the same on Sunday.”
Aston Villa winger Jadon Sancho, speaking to TNT Sports: “It is a lovely feeling [to go through]. Tonight has been incredible with the fans. We struck to the game plan, that’s what we needed and, hopefully, we keep that momentum into the Premier League.”
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On John McGinn being back from injury: “We’ve missed him a lot. He’s a great guy to be around, brings a lot of energy into the changing room. So happy to have him back and happy to assist him today.”
On their chances of winning the Europa League: “We have got to take it game by game, it is a tough competition, Europe is very different. We stuck to the game plan, we worked hard on and off the ball. If we keep [doing] this I’m sure we can go very far in this competition.”
Did you know?
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Aston Villa have reached the quarter-finals in major European competition in three consecutive seasons, as many times as they’d reached at least this round in their previous 11 such campaigns combined.
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Unai Emery has reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the eighth time, no other manager has done so more than five times. Aston Villa will be the fifth club the Spaniard will take into this round of the competition, after Valencia (twice), Sevilla (three times), Arsenal and Villarreal.