Unai Emery defends his team selection after Aston Villa suffer cup knockout
Crystal Palace advanced to the quarter-finals but suffered an injury scare to star forward Eberechi Eze
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Aston Villa boss Unai Emery had no regrets about his team selection after watching his much-changed side crash out of the Carabao Cup to Crystal Palace.
Emery made wholesale changes to his line-up, with Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Martinez, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley not even in the matchday squad.
And it came back to bite as Palace booked their spot in the last eight with a 2-1 win thanks to Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada goals either side of Jhon Duran’s leveller.
Emery insisted he would pick the same side if he played the match 100 times again.
“We started with 11 players in the first-team squad,” he said. “We started with Tyrone Mings and Diego Carlos, they can play in the starting XI playing against Bayern Munich.
“We started with (Ian) Maatsen and Kosta (Nedeljkovic). We started with (Boubacar) Kamara, with John McGinn, Leon Bailey, Jaden Philogene, Jhon Duran, (Emiliano) Buendia, I don’t know if I can have some regret.
“We are with our way, building the team, building the structure. Today we competed, but we lost.
“Of course I am disappointed and frustrated, but we competed with the players to get the performance.
“If I am repeating this match 100 times I am playing with the same players.”
Victory was another step in the right direction after they followed up their Premier League win over Tottenham at the weekend.
It came at a cost, though, as Eze limped off with a hamstring injury and was soon followed by Adam Wharton.
Boss Oliver Glasner says Eze’s problem is a concern ahead of a crunch game at Wolves on Saturday.
“It is a problem with the hamstring, we don’t know how serious it is,” the German said.
“But the muscle (injury) is not always the best information you can get. Ebs is too early to tell.
“He wanted to come off, he signalled to come off. He said it was not possible to carry on.
“I hope it is not too serious, but I don’t know. It’s not the best information I got today that Ebs had to leave the pitch.
“Adam is a more positive one because it is nothing new. We spoke about it many times, he has had groin problems for many months.
“We thought he needed a break today but he gave the thumbs up and said he was fine.
“But the pain got worse during the game so we had to make a second sub.
“Especially with the circumstances, I am very proud of the performance.”
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