Aston Villa’s heart-stopping battle with PSG: A 3–2 victory that fell short | OneFootball

Aston Villa’s bid to reach the UEFA Champions League semi-finals fell short, as their 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of the quarter-finals was not enough to overturn the deficit. Unai Emery’s side mounted an impressive comeback at Villa Park after going 0-2 down, but ultimately bowed out with a 4-5 aggregate loss, allowing the French champions to advance to the next stage.

Despite Aston Villa’s desire to score early, they were dealt an early setback. Marcus Rashford lost the ball after a challenge from Marquinhos, and PSG quickly launched a counter-attack. Emiliano Martínez pushed a low cross away, but it landed directly in the path of the onrushing fullback Achraf Hakimi, who made no mistake.

Paris doubled their lead after another breakaway, just minutes after Morgan Rogers had come close to equalizing. The move began with Amadou Onana nearly winning the ball high up in PSG’s box. Hakimi again played a key role, carrying the ball forward before finding Ousmane Dembélé, who squared it to Nuno Mendes. The left-back, who had scored in the first leg, fired past Martínez again for his second goal of the tie.

But the Premier League side did not let their heads drop. They continued to push and create chances. Six minutes after the second goal, the hosts pulled one back. Youri Tielemans started the move and found Marcus Rashford, who laid it off to John McGinn. The captain played it back to Tielemans, whose curling effort deflected off Pacho and left Gianluigi Donnarumma stranded.

Unai Emery’s men came out strong after the break. Rashford came close early, and within ten minutes of the restart, McGinn made a surging run through the middle. As PSG’s defenders backed off, he hit the ball over everyone into the opposition goal to make it 2-2 on the night and 3–5 on aggregate.

Just minutes later, Rashford kept up the pressure and forced a brilliant save from Donnarumma. Although the resulting corner was cleared, the ball soon returned to Rashford. He showed exceptional footwork to skip past a couple of players before cutting the ball back from the byline to Ezri Konsa. The center-back calmly slotted it home to make it 3-2, just one goal away from leveling the aggregate.

Seconds later, Tielemans found space for a free header, aiming for the top-left corner, but Donnarumma made another excellent save. Second-half substitute Marco Asensio then came close for the home side, forcing yet another sharp stop from Donnarumma after Pau Torres had picked him out with a brilliant long pass from deep.

Aston Villa continued knocking at the door. Moments later, Rashford delivered a superb free-kick that nearly found Konsa again, but the defender couldn’t get contact on the header despite having created space.

PSG, meanwhile, looked dangerous on the break, especially as Villa committed more players forward. Emiliano Martínez was called into action a few times to keep the hosts in the game. Désiré Doué nearly sealed the tie for the visitors late on, only to be denied by the Argentine goalkeeper. In the final minutes, PSG tried to run the clock down by keeping the ball near the corner flag.

Villa after winning the ball back pushed for the all-important goal in the dying seconds. But with only three minutes of stoppage time added, opportunities were limited. Ian Maatsen came agonizingly close to scoring with a thunderous shot that seemed destined for the net, but Pacho was there to make a last-ditch block on the goal line. That proved to be the final act of the match as PSG progressed to the semi-finals.