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Unai Emery is excited about the opportunity to “smell” Wembley’s unique atmosphere when he runs Aston Villa in the Copa Fa semifinal against Crystal Palace.
Villa has not won the FA CUP since 1957, but it can take a significant step to end this drought to see the palace and establish a final clash with Manchester City or Nottingham Forest.
A Cup victory would represent another important step forward for Villa, who has also played again in the Champions League under Emery.
🗣️ Uni our opponents tomorrow: “They are a team playing fantastic football, and I respect this coach because he is a winning coach.”
Read the preview of the head match below ⬇️
– Aston Villa (@avfcofficial) April 25, 2025
The Cup does still have a special attraction
Espanyol experienced has managed throughout Europe, but says that it is still enthusiastic about the CUP.
He said, “I am a coach, I like and I love my profession, my job. To smell good stadiums, good throws, I like it. And tomorrow I will enjoy it.
“Of course, I have a huge responsibility to try to respond in a good way to players. But I am really excited to play in matches like tomorrow and the possibility that we will have tomorrow at the CUP and something special when you share it with your fans because I know that the followers is a special thing.”
The defeat of the last grass on Tuesday night in Manchester City put a tooth to the Villa Champions League qualification hopes, but Emery insists that they will continue to fight on the two fronts to achieve their goals.
“When the season starts, you are trying to set some goals at the end of the season through four competitions: Premier League, Champions League this year or Europe, FA CUP and Carabao Cup,” he added.
“And, of course, we are still in two competitions, the Premier League because they are 38 games and the CUP.
“We focus on each game in each competition, trying to achieve our best. And being in Europe is a clear goal we have. The first way to get to Europe is through the Premier League. But achieving the trophy at the FA CUP, you can also play in Europe League.
“It is the second goal we can have in the competition. Now we cannot choose only a competition. We are choosing the two competitions strongly because we have two ways for our goal.”
Preparation of semifinals of the Cup FA ✅ pic.twitter.com/wqj9my7dph
– Aston Villa (@avfcofficial) April 25, 2025
Emery praise for Crystal Palace and Cape Glasner
The palace is another side that is on an upward trajectory and Emery is an admirer of the South London and his coach Oliver Glasner, especially after his 4-1 of Villa’s Premier League in February.
Emery said, “We always respect them. But they do fantastic against us. We will try to identify our ability to dominate the game again, impose our positioning, our combination with players, our individual duels. They are a team that plays fantastic football, fantastic football.
“And I respect this coach because he is a winning coach. He won the Europa League and his experiences here in England with Crystal Palace this year has been really fantastic. He came to the semifinal and he is very good.
“Sometimes he is not achieving the result to be better in the league, but they are very good. Against us, they showed it and, of course, you know and I respect them a lot.”
