EL KAABI DROPS EMERY AT THE EXIT

Villa suffer a rank bad night in Greece

- NEIL MOXLEY

UNAI EMERY suffered a Greek tragedy as his dreams of ending Villa’s trophy drought died.

The Spaniard was looking to finally plonk some silverware in a barren cabinet at Villa Park but the Mount Olympus-sized task proved beyond his injury-hit side.

Chasing down a two-goal deficit from the first leg in Birmingham was always going to be a tough ask – only three teams had done so in European history – but for a team hunting a Champions League place, optimism remained.

But it was dashed inside 10 minutes as Ayoub El Kaabi – their nemesis in the first leg who grabbed a treble – struck an early goal to leave them even further behind. 

His second, 10 minutes from time, sparked a red and white party in the stands.