Unai Emery impressed by Aston Villa maturity after late winner at Middlesbrough

Posted Sunday, January 07, 2024 by PA

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery hailed his side’s mentality as they beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in their third-round FA Cup clash at the Riverside.

The Premier League high-flyers reached the fourth round thanks to Matty Cash’s deflected winner in the 87th minute.

Villa had chances in the first half from Jhon Duran and Leander Dendoncker before threatening in the first 15 minutes of the second half as John McGinn, Ezri Konsa and Alex Moreno all came close from a succession of corners.

Cash eventually sent them through to the next round from a short corner in the final stages and Emery praised the maturity in his team to push for the winner.

“We played big passions, being mature, I think we are growing up our mentality in matches like that,” Emery said.

“At the beginning we were favourite to win, but difficult to face each match.

“They prepared and tactically they played a very good match and even when they were keeping more possession on the transition they threatened us.

“We were always in control of the game and even the 15 minute, 20 minutes in the second half they were in that moment in control of the game better than us, after we had the three chances in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

“We were being passionate and trying to keep in our mind our gameplan and after that moment we reacted again, we pushed in the last minute because we took two or three chances and we scored one of them.”

Villa were dumped out of the FA Cup by Stevenage in the third round last season, and Emery revealed his side had spoken about their history of the competition ahead of the Boro clash.

“We were speaking before the match about the FA Cup, a very historic cup competition, maybe the best cup competition in the world,” Emery added.

“We’re speaking about our players, how much they were successful in this competition – not a lot! Only Emiliano (Martinez) and Calum Chambers won with Arsenal.

“A long time Aston Villa was successful in this competition with seven titles.

“Of course we are here trying to do another step ahead in this club, trying to play facing different competition and trying to be contending to get something.”

Carabao Cup semi-finalists Middlesbrough missed out on another cup run, but still had their opportunities in the game as Alex Bangura created some good chances and Morgan Rogers tested Martinez.

Cash’s late strike came as a cruel blow to Michael Carrick’s side, who had defended well throughout, but the Boro boss was “so proud” of their performance.

He said: “I thought the whole game, to be honest, was good. Really happy with them at half-time.

“They had a little bit more of the game in some ways second half, but I thought in general in the circumstances against the team we were playing against, I thought they were fantastic, the lads, I’m so proud of them.

“Tactically they were spot on in terms of their discipline, concentration, we played some good football at times to play that pressure and we probably had more opportunities to create chances than actually the chances themselves but we definitely looked dangerous enough in the game.

“Disappointed not to get anything from it really.”