Aston Villa: Unai Emery reaches a major milestone in victory over Lille

Villa’s decision to sign Emery four years ago was a sign of their ambition to make a mark on the European stage.

While they remain well placed in fourth place in the Premier League, as they aim to secure a place in next season’s Champions League, success in the Europa League would also yield the same result.

However, on Thursday it was just a matter of finding their rhythm and some confidence after a winless run of four domestic matches which included defeats to Newcastle, bottom club Chelsea and Wolves.

Speaking to TNT Sports, returning captain John McGinn noted that the result provided Villa with a “building block” and a chance to “reset” after a difficult few weeks.

“We needed to reset things. Last month wasn’t great,” he said.

“We can’t dwell on this. We can learn from it but what we have to do is build and this is a building block. We know we can do much better but it’s a good result.

“We have shown signs of getting back to our best but there is still a long way to go. Sunday is a huge league game as well.” [at third-placed Manchester United] It’s a tough series of games, but it was a good start.

Meanwhile, Emery said he used his Premier League rivals’ struggles in the Champions League as a motivational tool ahead of kick-off.

He said: “We respect this competition because we know the difficulties that every away match in Europe faces.

“We know how things were for the English teams, as happened yesterday in the Champions League, and how they were suffering.”