{"id":396057,"date":"2026-04-16T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:44:09","slug":"aston-villa-looking-forward-to-special-semi-with-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396057\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa looking forward to ‘special’ semi with Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apr 16, 2026, 06:52 PM ET<\/p>\n

Aston Villa<\/a> boss Unai Emery is looking forward to a “special” Europa League semifinal with Nottingham Forest<\/a> following a 7-1 aggregate win over Bologna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Villa had their tails up after a 3-1 first-leg win and Ollie Watkins<\/a> started a first-half rout when he scored his 13th goal of the season and third of the tie.<\/p>\n

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Emi Buendia gave Villa a 2-0 lead less than a minute after Morgan Rogers<\/a> had seen a penalty saved, but the England<\/a> international made amends for his miss by putting the hosts 3-0 to the good before halftime and Ezri Konsa’s second goal of the tie wrapped up a convincing win late on.<\/p>\n

Villa have set up an all-Premier League<\/a> clash with Vitor Pereira’s Reds in the semifinals for a place in the Istanbul showpiece.<\/p>\n

The two teams met just last week in a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.<\/p>\n

Emery said: “It’s important for both teams and we have something similar, both clubs have won the European Cup.<\/p>\n

“They have had their moments in Europe at the highest level in their history and our history.<\/p>\n

“Now to play in the semifinal is very important for us and for them. It is going to be a very good semifinal for both teams, supporters, we are enjoying the way we are doing.<\/p>\n

“We are trying to appreciate each moment together with our supporters like today being in Villa Park, excited and motivated.<\/p>\n

“This semifinal is something special for both teams because it is an opportunity to play a semifinal and I know how difficult it is to play a semifinal.”<\/p>\n

Unai Emery celebrates with Aston Villa fans after sealing a spot in the Europa League semifinals.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Emery was pleased with the way his side killed the contest with three quick first-half goals.<\/p>\n

He added: “Today we extended the same game plan as we did last week in Bologna, respecting them and the competition.<\/p>\n

“Of course the performance collectively and playing two matches is really fantastic, but difficult.<\/p>\n

“We have won this match clearly with the result but [that’s] because we played a serious match.<\/p>\n

“Today we talked about our start being different to last week and being ruthless in the final third and this was the difference.”<\/p>\n

Watkins scored his 100th goal for the club with Villa’s opener — his fourth goal of the competition this season.<\/p>\n

The England striker has found it hard to score goals at certain points throughout this campaign, but Emery hailed his determination.<\/p>\n

“Individual numbers are important for the players,” he said. “Of course, today is a special day for Watkins because he achieved it through a collective objective because we are in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

“But individual numbers we want to help them and support them to achieve their different objectives they can have individually.<\/p>\n

“We need him [Watkins] scoring goals, getting numbers, even doing assists. Other players like today — Buendia, Rogers, Konsa, we need other players scoring goals.<\/p>\n

“But especially when we are trying to support our players with their numbers, strikers are important. Today it was Watkins’ day.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 16, 2026, 06:52 PM ET Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is looking forward to a “special” Europa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-396057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}