Every word Unai Emery said about Ajax, Jacob Ramsey injury and 'big challenges' ahead

Aston Villa news from BirminghamLive as Unai Emery sits down with the media at the Johan Cruyff Arena

Unai Emery spoke to the media at his press conference on Wednesday evening ahead of Aston Villa's Europa Conference League round of 16 first leg tie against Ajax.

Villa travelled to Amsterdam last night on the back of three consecutive league wins and will be targeting a victory tonight to take back to Villa Park next week. Here's every word Emery said to the press...

What characteristics of Ajax stand out?

"They have my own respect and historic club in Europe. A few years ago they were playing in the semi-final of the Champions League and they were very close to playing in the final.

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"They always are promoting a lot of young players. In the future, they are going to be very important players. The respect is because I think they are not being very consistent season this year, but I think they are probably getting better and of course for them to play here with their support at home tomorrow. I think they are going to show their best performance."

How do you balance the Premier League and Europa Conference League?

"We have to be consistent and being clear to get something important. The Premier League is 38 matches and we are now in the fourth position and of course, it is a very good opportunity to try to keep it.

"Now we are focusing like we did before in groups, on Europe because as well to play Europe for us is very important. Last year, we did a very big effort to play in the Conference League and we have to try to be consistent here and confident."

Is there an update on Ramsey?

“He’s not available for tomorrow. He is not with a big injury, but we have to wait every day how he is progressing to be available for the next match on Sunday. The good news is it is not an important injury.”

Are these the kind of games that you wanted and look forward to when you took the Villa job?

"Yes. I like to play in Europe and I am trying to to transmit to the players as well. Europe always is very, very difficult. I am very excited and motivated to achieve something here in Europe like I did before.

"But the most important is try to get as well prestige playing in Europe, play in different countries, different culture to play. I am playing in Europe 16 years in a row, but I never play here. For me as well it is being motivated to play here in the stadium and for myself it is very important in my career."

Will you go as strong as possible tomorrow night?

"I want to separate each competition. We are improving and we are taking experiences and important matches during the week before the groups and now we are going to start playing again.

"We have very important matches in the Premier League on Sunday and West Ham next Sunday. If we want to reach our level or increase our level, playing important games is very important to play matches that we are going to play in this week and in the next week."

What is your routine to prepare the players?

“My routine with the players is always to be very respectful of the opponent and analysing myself the tactical idea or the tactical way they did and then show their players and try to prepare our game plan. This is the routine I have when we are facing each team."

Does playing in Europe to go and experience all these great cities and great stadiums motivate you?

"I like my job, I like to prepare and work out how we can develop. There are a lot of teams in Europe, some teams being better than us.

"That is the big challenges I had before and the big challenge I want to face again and sometimes as well how we can be motivated, be excited playing against some teams at the beginning and our performances worse than us and really to try to be competitive. This is the challenge I have every day and tomorrow for me to be here.

"And after that, it is a very excited moment. I don't know if we are going to be better than them, worse than them, but how we are going to compete against them and, and the experiences we have here in Europe in Conference this year and we were speaking with the players this morning.

"We were very excited playing before the groups that I said earlier and we played fantastic. We then lost the first match in the group. Even when you are playing against the better teams, you have to be very motivated, you have to be very competitive to try to beat the opponent.

"But when you are playing against the worst team, if you are thinking is going to be easy, they can beat you. And this is my experiences before and I want to use it."