Unai Emery has heaped praise on his Aston Villa players after they produced one of their best performances of the season to thrash AZ Alkmaar in the Europa Conference League.
Having lost to Legia Warsaw in their opening group-stage fixture, Villa were under pressure to deliver a positive result against last season's semi-finalists.
That led to Emery making just four changes from the team that started the 4-1 win over West Ham United at the weekend, and a strong XI was able to run out winners by the same scoreline on Thursday night.
Leon Bailey, Youri Tielemans, Ollie Watkins and John McGinn all got on the scoresheet before the hour mark to ensure that even a goal from AZ winger Ibrahim Sadiq proved irrelevant.
Villa now sit three points clear of AZ in Group E ahead of hosting the in-form Eredivisie side in the West Midlands in two weeks' time.
Speaking after the match, Emery acknowledged that AZ had their full respect ahead of the contest, yet he paid credit to his players for showing the 'maturity' to produce such a performance when the stakes were high.
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Youri Tielemans has Villa two up in just over 20 minutes!#UECL pic.twitter.com/leJkhXVWqH
As quoted by Birmingham Live, Emery said: "That is very important for us, that they are win a lot of matches in their league and in Europe. They are very focused in this competition. If we want to be a contender, we have to show every day and when we are playing those matches, we have to show everybody our wishes. I think we did it."
He added: "We were speaking before the match about how important the match is, trying to be competitive away and trying to get the challenge being focused in 90 minutes. We did it.
"I am very happy with the players because I think they have to be mature, responsible and demanding themselves, not only when I'm pushing them. They have to try to increase their own individual and collective level.
"Today was fantastic because it was a key match and it was important. We have to be in the same idea and mentality that we are trying to get."
Should Villa prevail against AZ in the reverse fixture, they will ensure that they finish ahead of the Dutch club courtesy of being six points clear with two matches remaining and possessing the better head-to-head record.
Darren Plant
