(Reuters) – Aston Villa manager Unai Emery expressed his disappointment after his team surrendered a two-goal lead to Manchester United in the Premier League on Tuesday, calling it an “amazing opportunity” lost.
Villa, who had been unbeaten in 11 games in all competitions, suffered their first defeat as United came back to win 3-2 at Old Trafford, leaving Villa in third place with 39 points from 19 games and missing the chance to draw level with league-leaders Liverpool.
Emery, who took over from England great Steven Gerrard, lamented the missed chance, saying, “It’s the first half of the season and it’s been brilliant the way we did. We lost an amazing opportunity tonight to be with three points more after the first 60 minutes we played.”
Looking ahead, Emery said the team will need to put the disappointing result behind them and focus on their next match against Burnley, who are currently 19th in the league standings.
“The players were disappointed but our reaction can be against Burnley on Saturday – this is our next challenge we have to face after the result we had tonight,” he said.
Emery stressed the importance of recovering mentally and physically for the upcoming match, acknowledging the difficulty of doing so after the disappointing result against United.
Despite the setback, Emery expressed optimism, saying, “we have a lot of positive things in our way to be optimistic.”
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
