The Villans are well-placed to reach the quarter-finals as they hold a 3-1 aggregate lead heading into Wednesday's (12.03.25) second leg of the last 16 clash but the manager has urged his players to remain focused on completing the job against the Belgian side.

Emery told TNT Sports: "This is the importance of my focus for the match. Respect them, respect football, respect our experiences. Try to play and be ready for 90 minutes, continuing our game plan at Villa Park, in front of our supporters, but respecting them.

"Then we are ready even for extra time, even if we play a penalty shootout."

The coach pointed out some of the tough moments Villa have had in European competition in recent seasons as proof that even seemingly comfortable positions can be squandered.

Emery said: "We feel strong at home, but even like that, we were winning 2-0 against Celtic last time, and they drew [level] with us in five minutes. Afterwards, we won, of course.

"Last year we were in the Conference League against Olympiacos at home, and we lost here 2-4.

"They are experiences we had here - we had them outside here too - but this is the most important. I want to use the experiences we have here, and how we beat [Brugge], but in the last 10 minutes, when we were drawing, they had two chances to score."

Villa have won their last three matches in three different competitions and Emery hopes that the run can continue in Europe's top tournament.

He said: "We are trying to focus on this match against Brugge. Thinking and preparing for the game, after we won 1-3, trying to continue with the same work we did there. But, of course, we know how difficult it is to beat each team in the Champions League."