Emery returns to Camp Nou on eve of Aston Villa’s Champions League visit to Barcelona
Unai Emery returned to the Camp Nou on the eve of Aston Villa’s Champions League tie with Barcelona on Tuesday, confronting the stadium where Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-0 first-leg advantage was overturned in March 2017. He was asked about that Remontada and the night when Neymar, Messi and Suárez reversed the deficit.
Emery remained at Paris Saint-Germain for another season after that match, won a domestic treble, and, three clubs later, has added two more European trophies to his résumé. On the subject of that game he said: “What happened in that match we know. I started coaching in 2004, 22 years in a row. I’ve played in Europe 16 years in a row. And I’ve learnt in all the competitions and matches. And in that match I learnt so, so much.”
The expanded Champions League has created a congested autumn slate critics describe as a “hopeless and baggy blur,” centred on a 36-team mega-table that many view as predictable. Tuesday night is singled out as an exception in that drift: for Villa supporters it represents a tangible milestone for this developing team, with the possibility, depending on other results, of topping the competition table at this early stage.
Emery’s returns to Barcelona have produced a tough record: across 30 visits with Almería, Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, PSG and Villarreal he has recorded 21 defeats and three wins. He framed those outings as learning experiences, saying: “These games gave me experience to learn, to get better, to intensify for the next matches I face. With the players we talked about our experiences together. We had our experience in Europe, two years ago, last year. This year we have won three matches and done fantastic work. Tomorrow we are facing one of the favourites to win the competition so we are going to face a huge challenge.”
The Camp Nou is undergoing major external renovation, surrounded by hoardings and railings and rubble-strewn strips of land, while work inside progresses. Barcelona retain a possession-based, highly technical profile aided by La Masia’s youth output, but several absences have opened a potential vulnerability: Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen, Eric García and Xavi Espart are expected to miss the game. Villa plan to press aggressively and use their physical strengths.
Captain John McGinn, seated alongside Emery at the pop-up press conference, said he had only been to the stadium once before—as an eight-year-old on the same day Ricardo Quaresma signed for Barcelona and had his unveiling at the stadium—and praised Barcelona’s humility and work ethic while adding that Villa had the players to hurt them. Over the weekend there was significant digital reaction to Jamie Carragher’s assertion there is “a food chain” in English football and that Aston Villa would naturally remain below Manchester United.
Tuesday’s match gives Aston Villa a concrete opportunity in the group phase: depending on results elsewhere they can move to the top of the Champions League table at this early stage, and Nicholas Jackson is expected to be fit to start after playing 90 minutes at the weekend.