Unai Emery admitted his frustration after Barcelona beat a wasteful Aston Villa 3-0 at the Camp Nou in Champions League action on Tuesday.
Lamine Yamal opened the scoring for Hansi Flick’s side in the seventh minute before Raphinha’s second-half double sealed the result as Villa’s perfect European record this season came to an end.
Former Aston Villa forward Paul Merson, meanwhile, insisted La Liga champions Barcelona were simply a “different class”.
Emery bemoans missed chances
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Villa boss Emery said on Sky Sports: “The result is not good. A lot of things were positive but it was not enough to get the result.
“How we are building the team is clear in 90 minutes. We have young players, talented players and past players but we must try and get our structure.
“We made mistakes but we overcame these mistakes. More or less, after the mistake we made, we were creating chances and facing them.
“With the chances we had in the first half, maybe it would be different, but we were not clinical. We had chances to score and did not score.
“We have nine points because we did good work. We should be realistic but, at the same time, feel good.
“We need experiences for the players. [Barcelona] was very important. Good experience, bad result. At this level, you must be ruthless and avoid mistakes.”
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‘Barcelona were different class’
Analysing the result, Sky Sports pundit Merson stated: “There was not a lot [between the two sides] in the first half.
“They [Villa] shot themselves in the foot early doors. After that, they had good chances to score and should have scored at least one of them.
“Come out second half and Barcelona were different class, by far the better team. Villa really never looked like getting back into it second half.
“So, a solid performance, but they’ll be rueing their chances in the first half. Villa, second half, never in the game.
“It was a bit of a free swing. And as I said, in the first half they’ve done well, second half not good enough.”
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