In Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League league phase, Aston Villa will play away against Barcelona, with Unai Emery returning to Camp Nou. At the pre-match press conference, a reporter brought up La Remontada suffered by Emery's team. After listening with a displeased expression, Emery stated that “football needed VAR.”
The Telegraph reporter John Percy: “You've managed over a thousand matches, lots of success in your career. Can you think of a match that was anything like La Remontada here 10 years ago? I mean, it was an extraordinary match. What are your memories of that? What did you learn as a coach?”
Emery: "Another match, another match, just another match. Everything that happened in that match, we all know. I have been learning throughout my coaching career. I started coaching in 2006, 20 years ago. No, 2004, coaching for 22 straight years. I also played football in Europe for 16 years. All different competitions, including the Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League—I learned from all of those competitions, from all of those matches. And in that match, I learned very, very much. On one hand, sporting-wise, and on the other hand, non-sporting, at that moment, football needed VAR, needed VAR."
In the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League round of 16, Barcelona, trailing 0-4 away from home after the first leg, defeated Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 at home in the second leg, overturning the tie 6-5 on aggregate to advance—a match that came to be known as "La Remontada."