Tielemans on difficulties Villa will face at PSG
08/04/2025
uefa25
PSG - Aston Villa, Champions League quarter final first leg
08/04/2025
uefa25
PSG - Aston Villa, Champions League quarter final first leg
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, before we begin, we'll do a very quick 10 minutes with Yuri, but I'd
00:21just like to say that Yuri will only be answering questions in English. He can take questions
00:26in French, so obviously he understands, but he will only be answering questions in English.
00:32If we could operate a hands-up system, just to make this a little bit smoother, that would
00:36be much appreciated. So, 10 minutes, fire away. Phil, if you'd like to start.
00:43Hi Yuri, from McNulty, BBC Sport. Ahead of a game like this tomorrow, how much confidence
00:47does it give you to have a manager like Unai Emery, who is so experienced and successful
00:52in European competition leading you into this game? Yeah, a lot of confidence, obviously.
00:57He knows what it is to be at this stage of the competition, so he's got a plan in place,
01:03and we're just ready to play the game tomorrow.
01:07Good evening, in French. In French? Question. Yeah, you can take the question in French,
01:18but you'll answer in English. When you knew that you would fall on the Paris Saint-Germain
01:22after the qualification against Liverpool, and especially after the match against Manchester
01:27City, you, or what did you say with the players in the vestiaire? Thank you.
01:30Well, obviously, we're happy in a way that it's a good team to play against.
01:40Either Paris Saint-Germain or Liverpool were two tough opponents to play against, so now,
01:47at this stage of the competition, we're just here to play games, hopefully win them.
01:52And we're only going to face tough opponents, so we have to be ready and at the level of
01:58the competition.
02:00Bonjour, en français aussi.
02:01A quel type d'accueil vous attendez pour Emiliano Martinez,
02:05qui, on le sait, est un peu fâché avec le public français depuis la dernière Coupe du Monde?
02:09I don't know. To be honest, I don't really care. I'm just here to play the game, and whatever
02:14happens with EMI, as long as it stays respectfully in football terms, then I don't mind.
02:21I don't mind.
02:25Bonjour, Yuri. Tu es souvent vu comme un relais entre la défense et l'attaque.
02:30Quel équilibre est-ce-tu de garder face à une équipe ultra-offensive comme le PSG?
02:34Dunia Mesli pour ATS. Merci.
02:36Well, I always try and, obviously with a plan that the managers put in place to, like you said there,
02:45to relay between defence and attack, especially when we have the ball to try and help as much as I can
02:50in the build-up play and to put my teammates in forward position, try to put them as comfortable as possible
02:57as possible in the attacking areas. But like you said there, Paris Saint-Germain are a very offensive team,
03:06and it's going to be very hard to do that tomorrow, and we're going to have to find the right spaces at the right time
03:11and hopefully get a good game and for myself to pick up the spaces.
03:16Great.
03:17Yuri, I don't know if you noticed, but EMI was wearing some rather natty headgear on his way out here.
03:24He seemed to have a French cockerel on it and a badge with some Argentine trophies on it.
03:29Does that suggest that he's quite relaxed about taking the heat from the fans tomorrow?
03:35Yeah, I've got no idea, to be honest. I don't know, that's probably his style, but the only thing I can say
03:42is that he's ready for the game tomorrow and he's not spoken any differently than for any other game.
03:48So yeah, I think he's focused and he's looking forward to it.
03:52Okay. Just a second.
04:07Well, I think Lucas has, since my time here, he's been really good. He's been very consistent.
04:15He's had to work his way into the team, into the system, and he's done it brilliantly,
04:20especially the last year or so where he's been the first choice left back for the manager
04:27and he's been playing really good coming back into the national team.
04:31I think he's very proud of that as well, to have worked his way back into the team
04:36with all the talent that you have in France. I think it's credit to him and his hard work.
04:42Yuri, you've still got three competitions in which you're going so well. How pleased are you with the form currently
04:52and at this vital point of the season?
04:55Very pleased, obviously. You always want to do well, especially at the latter stages in the season.
05:01You want to be here and fighting for trophies. That's the ambition always.
05:06But you have to look at the process that we've gone through, especially since I'm here.
05:14I think we've only gone upwards.
05:16And even though you've always got that deep in the season, I think we've come out of that really well.
05:21And now we're just ready for the end of this season and to finish as strongly as possible, hopefully.
05:27Dan?
05:28Yuri, you've talked about the journey and the experience.
05:31Can you just talk to me about the growth from this time last year?
05:34Because when you win the semi-finals of the conference, you're competing for a top four.
05:38Since then, this January, you've added to the squad the likes of Marcus and Marco.
05:42So what's the difference amongst the group as you have another European quarter-final?
05:46Yeah, I think obviously the main difference is the competition that we're playing in.
05:51Obviously, going from the Conference League to the Champions League is a big step up.
05:56But in this stage of the competition, I think every team is really good.
06:01And the fact that we could add some of the players that you mentioned, some quality players,
06:08it's credit to the club to have recruited those players.
06:12But also credit to the players when they came in to be hitting that form straight away.
06:17I think it helps us massively.
06:19John?
06:20Yuri.
06:21Very often it's said that even the very best clubs need to have season after season after season of experience
06:29in this competition to really make an impact.
06:32So how can it be that you could do this in your very first season in this competition?
06:40I think it's just a case of being performing at the right moment.
06:46We have some players with a lot of experience and I think you can tell in the way that we're playing in this competition,
06:55especially against some of the biggest teams that we've been playing against.
07:01I don't need to mention names that we've been playing against, but I think some of the results we've had in this competitions were really good.
07:10But the way that we played and that we adapted ourselves to the competition was brilliant.
07:17But I think the main thing is our focus and our mentality going into games, knowing that we can do something here.
07:26But also knowing that we have tough opponents against us.
07:31So we're always ready, we're prepared and we just want to give our best for ourselves.
07:37Ben?
07:38Juri, what has Marco brought to the team? Obviously he feels like he brings an aura to the group and obviously a strange one for him coming back to PSG.
07:47Yeah, probably a strange one because you can never predict in advance that you're going to face your own team really.
07:56I think he's been, like I said, brilliant since he came in. He's worked really hard.
08:01You can see on the pitch he's making efforts for the team defensively and then offensively speaking you can just see his class whenever he touches the ball.
08:10I remember his first cameo at Villa Park. I think it was just brilliant. He just glided through some of the midfielders that he came up against.
08:23And I like him a lot because he works very hard for the team. He's someone that takes responsibility with the ball as well.
08:31He tries to pick up spaces that for me is really good because I can pass him the ball in forward areas.
08:38And then off the pitch he's just a really calm, really good guy and works hard.
08:45Matt?
08:46Do you think that's an underrated element of his game, Juri, the workwright?
08:50Yeah, probably because when you look at him you don't think that he's a hard worker in that sense where he's probably more so a ball player.
09:01But off the ball he does his job really good and that's what we need from every player.
09:08Is that so good you want to get the ball from him?
09:11Yuri, you met Boubacca Camara in the middle of the field?
09:15Could you talk about the duo you had formed and the complementarities since his arrival?
09:23Yes, Boubacca is a very good player. Obviously very easy to play with. For me to play next to him is we understand each other very well. The system is there for us as well to understand each other.
09:36understand each other and he's a guy that can pick a ball and make the team play but
09:42also can break a play as easily so, like I said, it's a joy to play with and very easy.
09:49Last one at the back there.
09:52Hello Yuri, Achilash for BFM, how do you explain the fast integration of Asensio?
10:01Have you helped him? He's integrated very well. He has very good strengths since his arrival.
10:07However, it's been a long time that he's here for a while.
10:11Yeah, like I just said to one of your colleagues, he's been really good since he came in.
10:17He's been working really hard on the pitch and he's just fit into the team really well.
10:24I think the system suits him as well to play off the striker as a number 10
10:28and to be able to be free around the striker and pick up spaces and we can fight him through the line.
10:36So, yeah, he's a really good player.
10:39Thank you very much everyone.