Villarreal coach Unai Emery admits he's spoken with Sir Alex Ferguson ahead of the Europa League final against Manchester United.

The Spaniard will be in the Villarreal dugout when his side take on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men in Gdansk on Wednesday.

For all his dominance over UEFA's secondary club competition, Emery has not been able to translate his success in the Champions League - something he revealed two-time winner Ferguson was keen to point out to him.

"Basically, eight teams can win the Champions League, although there's an exception every so often," Emery told ESPN.

"The rest of us compete happily in the Europa League and it makes our fans happy to compete for a title, share those moments, that enthusiasm.

"Alex Ferguson, who was playing in the Champions League with Manchester United every year, said 'but Unai, you'll want to win the Champions League, right?' And I said: 'yes, if I have the chance to. But if I can't, I want to go into the Europa League and strengthen it'."

Emery added: "It's a competition that I feel comfortable and grateful to be in it.

"And since then, paradoxically, United have spent a few years in the Europa League and they want to win it.

"That's happening more; that's what makes this competition great. We want to compete for it and we feel proud to do that."