Ollie Watkins expressed his delight after reaching 100 goals for Aston Villa in their victory over Bologna on Thursday.

Villa defeated Bologna 4-0 in their Europa League quarter-final second leg, securing a 7-1 aggregate victory and a semi-final clash against Nottingham Forest.

Watkins opened the scoring at Villa Park before Emiliano Buendia, Morgan Rogers and Ezri Konsa got in on the act.

Watkins became just the third Premier League player to score 100 goals in all competitions since his Villa debut (15th September 2020), alongside Mohamed Salah (159) and Erling Haaland (157).

Watkins is also the outright top goalscorer in major European competition for Villa with 10 goals, overtaking Peter Withe and John McGinn (nine each).

"It's a milestone every striker wants to hit," Watkins told TNT Sports.

"The next is 100 Premier League goals, that's what I have my eyes on.

"In my career, I have scored a lot of goals like that. Just being in the box and being prepared for it to fall to me. Morgan [Rogers] put it on a plate for me."

Villa and Forest will be the first English teams to meet at the semi-final stage of a major European competition since Manchester United vs Arsenal in the 2008-09 Champions League.

Watkins refused to get ahead of himself, but believes exciting weeks are ahead for Villa.

"When you're in a competition like this, anything can happen. We prepare for each game as it comes," added the striker.

"It's an exciting time for me personally and the team. We have everyone fit and are playing our best football.

"We've got it all to play for. If someone said we would be fighting for Champions League and in the semi-final of the European competition, I would've bit their hand off!"

Bologna boss Vincenzo Italiano chose to seek the positives from their defeat, while predicting Villa will win the Europa League this season.

"We must learn lessons from the whole journey, recognise that right now Aston Villa have an extra gear compared to us," said Italiano.

"They probably belong in the Champions League more than the Europa League, and I believe they will win the trophy.

"Our performance in the first leg was very strong, but we paid for too many distractions and errors.

"I don’t know if the difference between the teams is all that big, but all credit to them, they took every opportunity."