Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-2 to Aston Villa on Tuesday night at Villa Park in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie, but still advanced to the semifinals with a 5-4 win on aggregate. They’ll now face the winner of the Arsenal–Real Madrid tie.
The visitors started strong and quickly built a commanding 5-1 aggregate lead. Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring in the 11th minute, and Nuno Mendes doubled the advantage in the 27th. PSG looked to be cruising with a four-goal cushion—but Aston Villa weren’t done yet.
Youri Tielemans pulled one back before halftime, giving the home fans some life in the 34th minute. After the break, the momentum shifted. John McGinn struck in the 55th minute, and Ezri Konsa added another just two minutes later, suddenly making it 5-4 on aggregate.
Villa kept pushing for an equalizer, but PSG held firm to avoid a late collapse and book their place in the final four.
Unai Emery criticized for Marcus Rashford decision
A substitution decision could be one reason that Aston Villa is going home and not advancing. In his post-match remarks, former Aston Villa defender and BBC pundit Stephen Warnock slammed manager Unai Emery for taking out Marcus Rashford, who had an assist and four key passes (h/t BBC).
“I don’t know what Unai Emery saw, with the way Marcus Rashford was playing, he got it wrong. Rashford was brilliant. Rashford was involved in everything and everything which was good was coming from him. It felt like the tempo dropped when he made that substitution. You need a goal – why are you taking a striker off? If you want to pin PSG back, you play Rashford and Watkins in between the full-back and centre-halves and you stretch those balls over the top.”
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