'It's a really important week for us'
Aston Villa defender Pau Torres is positive over Aston Villa's chance to pursue both the Europa Conference League and a top-four finish in the Premier League.
The Villains face Lille in the quarter-final of the European competition on Thursday, before travelling to Emirates Stadium to face league leaders Arsenal on Sunday.
Torres said: "We have a really good squad and a really food team. With enough players to play 100 per cent in each game. We are working on it. This week is a hard week, a tough week, but we need to keep fighting.
"It's a really important week for us, this amazing game in Europe and we are going game to game. We are focused on tomorrow."
Having beaten Ajax 4-0 on aggregate in the Round of 16, Thursday's game will be Villa's first appearance in the last eight of a major European competition since 1998 and Torres said: "We need to start well in the first leg with our supporters. We know it will be difficult and we know we need to get a good result to go to France with opportunities."
The 27-year-old joined Villa in July and has made 31 appearances so far this season for the club - despite missing the start of the year with injury.
He said he is "now starting to feel better" since his injury but knows he is going to have to accept the rotation that comes with Villa's busy schedule in the end of the season run-in.
His Villa boss Unai Emery is no stranger to success in Europe having won four Europa Leagues - including three consecutive successes with Sevilla and, more recently, when he won the trophy in 2021 against Manchester United with a Villarreal side which included Torres.
In that 2021 victory, Torres started and scored his penalty in the shootout win in Gdansk and he knows his manager is key to Villa's hopes of chasing European success.
"Unai knows these competitions," he said.
"He knows how to prepare for every game and we know exactly how the opponents are going to play. It's a really good help for us."
