Can you take anything from Villa’s defeat against Go Ahead Eagles? Difficult to take anything from that game. In the end they lost, but we watched a lot of games. Their coach is one of the best coaches in the world. How they play we try to learn and it is a little bit easier to prepare. They have quality and it is clear what they do with and without the ball. We are here to compete and to show. We want to see where we are against this great opponent.

Have you had to discuss the backdrop to the game with your players? Yeah, of course.

What was said? We are only focusing on football.

You are yet to win in the Europa League, is tomorrow a must-win? We will try to find our opportunities to do our best.

Is it sad that there’s no away fans? Yeah, of course.

Is it unfair? Unfair or fair, in the world I am not one to judge about it. On the pitch it is 11vs11.

**Žarko Lazetić, Maccabi Tel Aviv manager, pre-match.**



"Politics should never be drawn into football.”

**Jack Angelides, Chief Executive of Maccabi Tel Aviv keeps a straight face.**



"I'm delighted to have committed my future here.

”It has been one of my goals to be consistent with my performances ever since I became a footballer.

"I feel at home here. I wouldn't say that I feel comfortable as such because you can never be too comfortable in football, you should always have goals and objectives that you want to achieve.

"I'm delighted about the path that this club is on and hopefully we can continue to be really successful together.

"It is something that I've been working on over the last couple of years.

"I've had chats with the manager about controlling my emotions because you have to do that in big games. Football isn't always about being a good player, you also have to be strong-minded.

"We are all human and we all have feelings, but I've learnt to focus on the pitch and be demanding of myself every day.

"Everyone has opinions so whatever the opinion is - good or bad - you have to take it on the chin.

"I'm delighted to be playing well at the moment, but I'll never be too comfortable because I want to try to do the best I can."

**Matty Cash on his new contract.**



"In the past three years, he has shown me how he is able to lead the team in all moments. He is a versatile player that can be used as a midfielder, winger and number 10. He is going to continue being an important player for us."

**Unai Emery on John McGinn.**



"The objective is of course to be in the top 24, but the priority is seeing if we can achieve top eight because that is better. We are speaking about it in training and preparing to try to get out our best performances collectively.

"The objective is to be first in the table. Our priority is to win every match now. We have to try to get three points to become contenders for top eight again and avoid an extra round of fixtures."

"In this morning's meeting we were talking about our wishes to win this competition, but we have to maintain our focus in each match. When we lost against Go Ahead Eagles, they showed us that we can lose matches if we are not 100% respecting the teams and the competition."

**Unai Emery, pre-match.**



"We miss his qualities. He helps us play different combinations and dominate possession. He is a player that others feel uncomfortable playing against. He has been very important for us over the past few years."

**Unai Emery on Youri Tielemans.**



"It's necessary in the football business that there will be some kind of financial control.

“We cannot be in a situation where a football club, as is happening to Sheffield Wednesday, will be close to disappearing or bankruptcy, creating a big social problem.

"But we need to look as a profession for the best rules to be equalising, or trying to create more competition on the football side. EPL [Premier League] have PSR – based on the maximum of losses that you can have. Uefa rules are based on the amount of money you can spend of your total revenues, in this case 70%.

"In my opinion, both rules could be good or bad. But they have low compatibility. So for a club from the Premier League, not one of the big revenue clubs, to compete in Europe you have a double control, and UEFA is more strict than Premier League.

"When you don't play in Europe, you have one problem to solve – that's PSR. If you play in the Premier League and Europe, you have to do a double puzzle, but the pieces are not fitting in the different puzzles."

**Director of football operations, Damian Vidagany discusses the double-edged sword of European qualification.**