TAKE A STROLL DOWN EMERY LANE

Rambo insists Unai's Euro experience will be vital for Villa as they return to big time

- NEIL MOXLEY

ALAN MCINALLY believes Aston Villa have a secret Champions League weapon Unai Emery.

The Scot, whose name is still sung by Holtenders, believes there is little that European football can throw at the club's boss that he hasn't seen before.

Villa are competing in the Champions League for the first time. In fact, their last match in the competition was 41 years ago when Michel Platini's starstudded Juventus defeated them in the quarter-finals of the European Cup.

Emery's side contested the Europa Conference League last season, giving John McGinn and Co a flavour of what to expect.

But ex-Bayern Munich great McInally who reached two semi-finals himself with the Bavarian giants says that Villa have an ace up their sleeve.

He said: "To a degree, European competition is European competition. The boys will be kind of used to it and because of what happened last season, it won't be such a shock to the system. The problem is, you're not playing in the Europa Conference here. You're not playing teams that finished sixth or seventh in their domestic leagues.

"To a certain extent, what happened to Villa last year will have given them an eyeopener. Legia Warsaw was a bit tasty, so was Olympiakos.