Aston Villa captain McGinn: No excuses for ECL semi defeat

Aston Villa captain John McGinn says there's no excuses over their Europa Conference League exit.

Villa were beaten home and away by Olymipakos in their semifinal.

"Looking back, it was not the performance we wanted, out of control at home," McGinn admitted. "There was probably a bit of inexperience. But the second leg, the first half performance was exactly what we wanted.

"The main message from everyone, even outside of the team, was don't lose the first goal. That, against the run of play, was obviously a massive blow. You can't argue over the two legs the better team went through.

"You can make excuses about X, Y or Z being injured. But the manager has driven into us there is a no excuse mentality. We had enough out there to turn the tie around and we fully believed it. It just wasn't our night.

"There are obviously massive improvements needed moving forward to try and compete and succeed at this level. There was no-one more desperate to get to the final than the boys."