Emery wary of 'prestigious' Celtic

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery says his side are facing a "fantastic coach" and "prestigious club" when they host Brendan Rodgers' Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The Spaniard has won two of his three previous games against Celtic, with his PSG side winning 7-1 and 5-0 in Champions League meetings in 2017.

He also faced Celtic as manager of Spartak Moscow in 2012 when an injury-time goal from Georgios Samaras gave the Scottish side a historic first away win in the group stage

"It doesn't matter!" Emery said when asked how those games had finished.

"Brendan is a fantastic coach, he showed here in Leicester.

"The last matches we played together was when he was at Leicester and it was always very difficult to beat the team he was managing.

"With PSG it was a different moment, we won but it was different teams."

Both sides have already secured a play-off spot in the new-look league phase and a win could still lift either of them into an automatic qualification spot, with Villa currently a point better off than Celtic and only outside the top eight on goal difference.

"Tomorrow we will respect them like they deserve and they are a winning team, their mentality is usually winning matches in their league," Emery added.

"They are going to play feeling confident and trying to face us feeling they can be close to us as well.

"I know because I respect and analyse them. They have good players and a good coach, the club is a prestigious club and the players feel they are a team to play in Europe."