John McGinn rues under-manned Villa’s European loss

Aston Villa captain John McGinn says his side may not have suffered European heartbreak had they been at full strength.

Villa lost in the semi-final of the Europa Conference League to Olympiacos, with a 2-0 loss in Athens on Thursday handing them a 6-2 aggregate defeat.

Injuries have hit the Villa squad hard with Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey, Nicolo Zaniolo, Emiliano Buendia, Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara all sidelined.

It left them short of options and McGinn says that was a factor as their hopes of reaching a first European final since 1982 crumbled.

The Scot said: “It possibly has (caught up with them). The manager drills into us that is a no-excuse environment. Listen, you want everyone available, you want your best players there.

“When you are in the trenches, (you want) someone you can turn to in order to change the game or do something different.

“We went into this competition as favourites and we handled that throughout the competition. I think it has been a big learning curve for us.

“It’s not been a smooth journey, we got to the semi-final and were down to the bare bones a wee bit. However, those of us that were out there across the two legs lost to the better team and the scoreline shows that.”

Villa will see this as a big opportunity missed to win some European silverware but they do not have plans to return to the third-tier competition any time soon.

Their impressive Premier League season has put them on the verge of Champions League qualification, with Europa League football guaranteed already as a minimum.

They could confirm a top-four position this weekend if Tottenham lose to Burnley or Villa can beat Liverpool on Monday.

Boss Unai Emery is taking it day by day to see who he has available for that game against the Reds, which is Jurgen Klopp’s final away game in charge.

“Each day is going to be very important because some players have small injuries, some have pain and it’s not a day when or where they can come back,” he said.

“Zaniolo is close but until he is feeling comfortable he’s not available to play, hopefully he can progress. Tielemans is close. Moreno is not a big injury.”