Unai Emery has termed Aston Villa's hopes of Champions League football as 'maybe impossible' ahead of their crunch visit to Premier League top-four rivals Manchester United.
Sixth-placed Villa are six points adrift of United, who occupy the final Champions League spot and have played two fewer games, going into Sunday's showdown at Old Trafford.
'The last step is to keep in the European places,' said Villa manager Emery, whose side are unbeaten in 10 games having won eight of those.
'We escaped the bottom, we got top 10 and now the European places is the last step but it is more difficult.