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Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery has insisted his team are ready to compete for major silverware as they prepare to host Bologna in their third Champions League game of the season.
The Birmingham-based side have won both of their games in the competition so far having qualified for European football’s elite competition for the first time since the 1982-83 season.
“I don’t want to waste my time here, that is my message. You can’t waste your time here,” Emery told a news conference on Monday.
“My objective here is to keep the same level we have now, Champions League and add more to be contenders for titles.
“This is the message, we love football, we love our work and we want to be successful.”
Villa Park is set for its second Champions League game — the competition was rebranded from the European Cup at the start of the 1992 season — having played host to Jhon Durán‘s stunning winner against Bayern Munich in the previous game.
Emery said he doesn’t want his team to merely be making up the numbers, and restated his intention to qualify for the competition on a regular basis.
“We want to achieve the objectives and one of them is to play in the Champions League. It is not about playing there only because of some circumstances — I want to us to stay there for a long time,” the Spanish coach said.
“But it is difficult. Maybe sometimes you can have some problems or struggle in our way, but you have to be resilient. We want to be strong in the idea in our mind and create a strong mentality to always break barriers.
“We can believe, working like we are doing, we can keep it. This is my challenge, this is my objective now.”
Bologna also qualified for the modern version of the Champions League for the first time after finishing fifth in Serie A last term.
They have one point from their two matches thus far, having drawn with Shakhtar Donetsk before succumbing to defeat against Liverpool at Anfield.