Aston Villa’s valiant efforts not enough as PSG narrowly advance to the Champions League semi-finals
- Anweshan Ghosh
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 17
Aston Villa sparked a remarkable fight-back at Villa Park last night but just fell short of a fairytale turnaround as PSG narrowly managed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The visitors headed into the game as the favourites to progress to the next stage, having won the previous leg by a scoreline of 3-1, and quickly added two goals in the first half itself to further strengthen their hold on the tie by making it 5-1 on aggregate.
The tie seemed to have been put to bed following Paris’ second goal; however, what Aston Villa did next would surely go down as one of the most memorable performances in the competition’s history as they almost secured an unbelievable turnaround.
Youri Tielemans inspired the fight-back following Nuno Mendes’ goal for the visitors, opening the scoreline for his side from a huge deflection off Willian Pacho.
However, the West Midlands finally began to believe in a possible comeback after skipper John McGinn’s worldie from outside of the box, which completely caught out Donnarumma and reduced the deficit to just two goals for Unai Emery and his men.
Just two minutes after McGinn’s strike, Marcus Rashford’s individual brilliance to set up Ezri Konsa led to Aston Villa’s third goal of the night, which took the visitors within touching distance of equalising the tie.
The hosts could've added two more goals and tipped the scales in their favour hadn’t it been for PSG’s towering No. 1, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who made five saves in total, with two saves coming from point-blank range shots.
Donnarumma's excellence ensured PSG’s qualification into the semi-final stages of the Champions League for a second time in a row, despite Aston Villa’s memorable display.
Has PSG’s time finally come?
Following their hard-fought win against Aston Villa, which comes on top of their tremendous victory against Liverpool in the Round of 16, it will be fair to say that PSG have now established themselves as the potential favourites to win this season’s Champions League.
The current Paris Saint-Germain squad, crafted and orchestrated by the genius of Luis Enrique, has the perfect balance between youth and experience and has been showing a lot of promise this season.
The biggest strength of the French giants has been their dynamic midfield trio, comprising Fabian Ruiz’s experience along with the agility and pace offered by the Portuguese duo of Vitinha and Joao Neves, who hasn’t put a foot wrong since being deployed by Enrique.
On top of their strong midfield, the fearsome attack consisting of Bradley Barcola, new star signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and arguably PSG’s best player this season, Ousmane Dembélé, has been ripping apart defences in Ligue 1 and even the Champions League since Kvaratskhelia’s transfer in January.
PSG will be facing Arsenal in the semi-finals, who could be their biggest hurdle so far in the competition this season. However, with their recent form and momentum, the French champions would fancy themselves reaching the final after five years and also ending their long-standing dream of winning their first-ever Champions League title.
Comments