Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has said that his side must improve their efficiency from the penalty spot after Emi Buendia’s miss in their shock 2-1 defeat to Go Ahead Eagles on Thursday.
Villa headed into the Europa League clash in fine form, after winning all their five previous matches, but suffered their first European defeat of the campaign in a disappointing encounter.
The English side looked set for another easy night when they took the lead inside four minutes through Evan Guessand.
However, they were pegged back three minutes before the interval when the hosts pulled one back through Mathis Suray.
“Today the responsibility was for Emiliano Buendía,” he said. “And normally he has good numbers shooting penalties, but he missed.
“Of course, something can happen, and we will try to get more clinical in the penalty shoot than the last penalties we have had.
“Our takers are clear. Buendía was today, [Jadon] Sancho, John McGinn, Morgan [Rogers] as well can shoot penalties”, Emery added.
“And, of course, Emiliano can repeat, but the idea is try to be so, so responsible about the decision and about the takers who can score.”
The home side completed the comeback in the 61st minute, when Mats Deijl took advantage of the visitors high defensive line to score his side’s second.
Aston Villa were given a lifeline when the referee awarded them a penalty kick for a handball, but Emi Buendia blazed over from 12 yards.
It marked the club’s sixth penalty loss over the last 12 months, highlighting their inefficiency in taking spot kicks.
“And today showed us how difficult it is to play in Europe, to play away,” the Aston Villa manager continued.
“This is the reason I love football, because football has a lot of different ways to win. You can dominate, like we did, you have chances to score, but if we are conceding a few chances, maybe you can lose. And we did.
“Of course, I had a lot of experiences like today, and we have here with Aston Villa a lot of experiences like today.”
Aston Villa will be back in action later this weekend in the English Premier League, with a tough task against Manchester City on Sunday.
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