Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has confirmed the reasons for making a half-time substitution against Ajax.

The Spanish head coach took off centre back Pau Torres, as they secured a 0-0 draw in the Netherlands.

Villa will now head to Villa Park next week to try and progress to the last eight of the Europa Conference League.

"He had a small injury two weeks ago," Emery explained about Torres to reporters.

"We did a plan with him. I think tactically as well we needed to change something.

“The plan was to play 45 minutes with Pau Torres."