Football

Unai Emery Relishes The Challenge Of Fixture Congestion Ahead Of Aston Villa’s Clash With Bayern Munich

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By
Oliver Taliku
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Oliver Taliku Sports Editor

Olly Taliku has worked with highly respected sports and gambling websites where he has produced hundreds of articles, as well as being published with Burton Albion and Chesterfield FC. At Burton Olly worked closely alongside the women's team, producing mainly matchday content including reports and interviews, while at Chesterfield he worked in a similar role but with the academy side, as well as some first team content. He also has experience as an accredited Premier League and EFL writer for Prost International where he worked during the 2021/22 season to produce matchday content as an on location reporter. Olly specialises in football as well as long form SEO content plus news, tips and betting but also produces content on basketball, baseball and American football.

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Published30 Sep 2024

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Aston Villa Champions League

While plenty of Premier League managers and players have been complaining about fixture congestion this season, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is relishing the challenge ahead of his side’s first home Champions League match of the campaign. 

Unai Emery Ready For Bayern Munich

Aston Villa face the tough prospect of Bayern Munich in their first Champions League home game of the season, but Unai Emery isn’t phased by the in form Bundesliga outfit.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of Wednesday night’s match, Emery said: “This is our challenge and my demands as well. On Wednesday we are going to be fantastic.”

Harry Kane and company have put together an impressive record to start the season, with no losses yet in any competition despite drawing with Bayer Leverkusen over the weekend.

Bayern also set a new record in the Champions League in their first matchday of the campaign by scoring nine against Dinamo Zagreb – the most in any single game in the competition.

Villa also won in their first European game this year with a relatively comfortable 3-0 win in Switzerland against Young Boys.

The Bayern fixture is by far the most difficult game Villa will play in the group stage this year although they don’t have an easy run to the last 16 with the likes of Leipzig, Celtic, Monaco and Juventus all still to come.

Busy Fixture Schedule Doesn’t Bother Unai Emery

Unlike other managers in the Premier League, Unai Emery doesn’t seem to have a problem with the busy fixture schedule ahead of the next international break, treating it more like an honour: “What do we want? We want to play in Europe. We want to get the same level like other teams like City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle and Tottenham.” he said.

“If we don’t want it then we don’t play in Europe and we rest in the week. Fantastic for everybody. It is the challenge we have. The players, myself, the supporters, even the journalists!”

Villa dew 2-2 with Ipswich on Sunday afternoon, giving them just two days rest ahead of their next fixture in Europe. Their match against Bayern will be Villa’s fourth match in 11 days, with Manchester United in the league coming up next weekend.

Emery continued: “We are going to be tired, this is the level. Man City played at this level for 10 years, Liverpool for 20 years. If we don’t want to play at this level, then we don’t play in Europe and we will be comfortable playing for the top 10.”

Although Villa have next to no time to recover from Sunday, neither do Bayern Munich, who also played out a draw on Saturday in testing conditions against Leverkusen.

The last time Villa played a Champions League game at home was in 1982/83 when the competition was still called the European Cup, so an electric atmosphere can be expected when Bayern visit Villa Park this week.