Unai Emery reacts to Celtic showing at Aston Villa in Champions League, expectation vs reality

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Unai Emery had to calm his Aston Villa side down during their shattering clash with Celtic on Wednesday.

Villa led 2-0 within five minutes in front of a packed out crowd as they looked to secure a top eight Champions League spot.

But Adam Idah‘s stunning quick-fire double hauled Celts back into the action and forced Emery to take stock and urge his side to settle following what was a crazy first-half.

Villa would go on to win 4-2 in what was an exhausting 90 minutes where Ollie Watkins would miss a contentious penalty and then score while Morgan Rogers bagged a hat-trick before hailing the visiting Hoops support.

Brendan Rodgers was bursting with pride at full-time as he applauded his squad for being brave and certainly making a fist of it against the Premier League outfit.

• READ MORE: Gabby Agbonlahor calls out Jamie O’Hara for his Celtic comments when Aston Villa led 2-0

Unai Emery knew what to expect from Celtic vs Aston Villa

And while Emery’s side did eventually secure the result they needed to make it into the knockout stages proper – without needing a playoff tie like Celts – the Spaniard had to acknowledge how well their opponents played on the night.

Emery would have known better than most how a Rodgers team would be set up.

The Scottish Premiership leaders do not back down and would always push up the pitch for goals when the likes of Idah, Nicolas Kuhn and Reo Hatate were on the park.

Yet while Villa boss Emery knew what to expect from Celtic, he admitted at full-time that it still took his players to be disciplined and at their very best to beat their challengers.

Emery praised Celtic for a Champions League challenge

The former PSG and Valencia boss, directly asked about his opponents’ performance in his post-match press conference, said: “How did Celtic play? Good.

“The expectation we had of them was how they played.

“They were competing very well after we started very good.

“In the second half, we dominate again, imposing, pushing, controlling the game, doing good passes, getting good positioning and being more in their box. Through this, we beat them.”

Celtic silenced plenty of critics including motormouth duo Jason Cundy and Jamie O’Hara.

The English media were also forced to backtrack previous comments as Celts “made a mockery” of their doubters.