Villarreal manager, Unai Emery, has predicted a difficult fight for the Europa League title against Premier League giant, Manchester United, when they meet in the final.

Emery’s Yellow Submarines dumped his former side, Arsenal, following a goalless draw at the Emirates on Thursday night, having won the first leg by 2-1.

They face a tough task against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United who aim to win their first trophy since they won the competition in May 2017 after defeating Roma 8-5 on aggregate to make this season’s final.

In a post-match interview with BT Sport, Emery who won the Europa League three consecutive times with Sevilla in 2014-15-16 said he’s proud of his Villareal team.

“I’m very proud because we know that the match was very important for us and Arsenal are a very good team, but we need to do the work like we did tonight and in the first leg in Villarreal. I think we deserved it,” says Emery who lost his fourth final of the competition as an Arsenal manager against Chelsea in 2018-19.

“I think we made a very serious match, defensively, we had big performances, helping each other. I think the first leg was very important to do this difference and today. we worked it very well and we defended very well as well. In times with possession, we controlled the match and we took some options in attack to score goals, but they had the best chances to score.

“I know it [the final] is going to be very difficult, but today we will enjoy the moment, then we will prepare for the match against Man Utd. But we deserve to do that and to play in this final and we are going to show our supporters our best performance again to show we want to fight against Man Utd to win this title.”

Villarreal take on Manchester United in Gdansk, Poland on Wednesday, May 26 for the final show down of the competition.