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, but still moved on to the semifinals with a 5-4 win on aggregate. They’ll face either Arsenal or Real Madrid next.
PSG came out flying, scoring twice early to build a commanding 5-1 lead on aggregate. Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring in the 11th minute, and Nuno Mendes followed with a second in the 27th. With a four-goal cushion, it looked like PSG were in full control—but Aston Villa had other plans.
Youri Tielemans pulled one back in the 34th minute, giving the home crowd something to cheer about heading into the break. Then came a flurry of goals early in the second half: John McGinn scored in the 55th, and Ezri Konsa added another just two minutes later, cutting the aggregate score to 5-4.
Aston Villa pushed for the equalizer, but PSG held on to avoid a dramatic collapse and book their spot in the semifinal.
John McGinn opens up about falling short against PSG
After the match, Aston Villa’s John McGinn spoke to TNT Sports and noted their disappointment in falling one goal short of pushing the tie to extra time (h/t BBC).
“Obvious disappointment, but I am proud of my teammates, proud of the club. We have come a long way. We were so, so close tonight. We just fell a little bit short. We had chances to take the game to extra-time but we’ve got to be proud about the way we come back against one of the best teams in the world, to fight to the end. “We want more. We want to be back here next season, and we will try our best to do that.”
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