Maccabi Tel-Aviv were ordered to arrive at Villa Park five hours early ahead of Thursday’s tense Europa League clash with Aston Villa.
Villa eased to a 2-0 victory on a night where chaotic scenes erupted ahead of kick-off with travelling supporters banned from attending due to safety fears.
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests were held at separate ends outside of Villa’s stadium ahead of kick-off with more than 700 police officers deployed in a huge security operation in the Midlands.
11 arrests were made outside the stadium while Maccabi were left ‘with nothing to do’ having been told to arrive at the stadium by 3pm on Thursday afternoon.
“It was not normal,’ head coach Zarko Lazetic revealed post-match. ‘Sitting, nothing to do. [We came] five hours before the match.
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‘It was very difficult. It was not our decision.’
Maccabi have two more matches on the road in the Europa League, travelling to take on Stuttgart on 11 December.
They are in Germany again in January, taking on Freiberg in their penultimate match of the initial league phase.
On a night where the football itself was almost secondary, Dutch duo Ian Maatsen and Donyell Malen scored either side of half-time for Villa to secure victory for the Premier League side.
Villa boss Unai Emery did not face questions on events outside the Europa League match with the club’s press officer jumping in when the Spaniard was quizzed’s on Maccabi’s early arrival.
Emery did however praise his side for handling the occasion.
‘Finishing the match I am happy, I am not happy with the performance, but I understand the difficulties we have and we will face for the next match,’ the Villa boss said.
‘We conceded more chances than we planned and we made some mistakes but overall in 90 minutes we dominated, we played with a good result in front and we managed the match and doing some management as well with the players to try to get good balance.
‘We used our passion and our experience in Europe. Here at home in the Conference League two years ago, we have the experience and try to understand the difficulties.
‘Do not be frustrated, try and use it to be passionate. It was coming in the second half.’
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