Villa bowed out of Europe after a 5-4 aggregate defeat - despite winning 3-2 in Tuesday's (15.04.25) quarter-final second leg - to the French side and the coach is desperate for the club to become regulars in the continent's top competition.

Emery said: "I am so, so confident to get our objective, working hard.

"We are finishing in the quarter-final and hopefully we can come back quick to play in the Champions League.

"This is the next objective for us. The most important competition is the Champions League. The challenge we have for the last six matches is to try and get Europe and the Champions League.

"Getting to this level is the next step forward, I want to try to win with Aston Villa.

"We can feel happy and proud and comfortable with the work we did but if we want to achieve the next level, I am going to be demanding of myself and the players as to how we can get better."

Villa fell agonisingly short of a comeback and Emery has been "proud" of their performances in the Champions League season.

The Spanish manager told Amazon Prime: "I am very proud of everything we did.

"To get to this level is the best step forward to get to where I want to be at with Aston Villa.

"We competed well in the first leg, but not enough. We were even better today and close to coming back. The last step forward is still [missing], and this is the only [aspect] I want to [work on] for our process."

Emery added in his press conference: "The players showed capacity. We beat Bayern Munich and we won tonight, the players showed their capacity at this level, they are here because they deserve to be here and facing matches like today.

"I want a club with the same challenges as I have - adding more quality players if we need it - so proud of these players, confident we will get our objectives until the last match we'll face."