Unai Emery responds to Aston Villa's major setback ahead of Brighton

Unai Emery has not given up hope of Aston Villa still reaching a first European final since 1982 despite losing 4-2 in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final against Olympiacos.

Villa, who travel to Brighton this Sunday in the Premier League, were playing their biggest occasion in Europe since winning the European Cup 42 years ago.

But Ayoub El Kaabi scored a hat-trick and Santiago Hezze’s deflected effort made it a memorable night for Olympiacos.

Villa had made it 2-2 through Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby, but they capitulated and Douglas Luiz’s late penalty miss made it an evening to forget.

Emery said: “Now they are favourites, now we are going to try and prepare the match. It completely changes the match in Athens, playing two goals behind them but we have an opportunity to play better and control the game better than today. Maybe we can get confidence.

“We are frustrated and disappointed, we didn’t play well. We didn’t have control of the game. They did well and we didn’t do like we planned.

“Now they are favourite, they deserved to win the first leg. We will try next week to come back but now of course they are favourites.”

Aston Villa are however still in the hunt for a top four spot and will be keen to bounce back at the Amex Stadium against a Brighton team who have are without a win in six.