‘The tie was unfortunately lost in the first leg’published at 22:31 9 May
FT: Olympiakos 2-0 Aston Villa (agg: 6-2)
Aston Villa
Image source, Getty ImagesAston Villa captain John McGinn speaking to TNT Sports: “Believe it or not we actually started the game very well. The first half was a really good performance by us, but over the two legs very, very disappointing obviously.
“We went into this competition of favourites and we handle that throughout the competition. I think it has been a big learning curve for us. It’s not been a smooth journey, we got to the semi-final and were down to the bare bones a wee bit. However those of us that were out there across the two legs lost to the better team and the scoreline shows that.
On if injuries have caught up with the team: “Possibly. Possibly. The manager drills into us that is is a no excuse environment. Listen you want everyone available, you want your best players there. When you are in the trenches, someone you can turn to in order to change the game or do something different.
“Tonight I think the game plan was perfect in the first half. We’ve got to be really proud of how we played. The goal was extremely disappointing. The tie was unfortunately lost in the first leg – we didn’t control the game or manage it well enough, the performance was poor.
“For us going into more European competition next season we need to learn how to manage moments a lot better. Of course we wanted to do better this year and get to a European final but we will do everything we can to get ourselves back into this position and get to a final. “