Unai Emery axes two new Aston Villa signings from Champions League squad

Unai Emery has left Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia out of Aston Villa’s squad for the Champions League knockout phase.

Villa signed Malen from Borussia Dortmund last month in a deal worth €23 million (£19m) plus €3m (£2.5m) in add-ons, while Garcia joined in a £7m move from Spanish side Levante.

Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi also arrived at Villa on loan during the January transfer window.

Villa finished eighth after eight games in the Champions League and have automatically secured their place in the knockout phase, meaning they will face one of Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Sporting CP or Club Brugge in the last 16.

Only three new players could be registered by Villa for the next phase of the Champions League and Emery has opted to include Rashford, Asensio and Disasi.

‘The rules only can accept and register three changes,’ Emery said on Friday.

‘We did more changes in the transfer window than we wanted. Even though we lost one player more because Jaden [Philogene] was a club-trained player and we lost the opportunity through him to have one more.

‘We changed five players and can only register three. The decisions we had to take yesterday and are out are Andres Garcia and Donyell Malen.

‘Of course, it’s not a good decision I had to take yesterday, but I spoke with Andres and Donyell to tell them the decision and I argued my decision with them.’

Villa are next in action against Tottenham in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday.

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