Aston Villa are out but not down after breathless Champions League exit
No room for regrets as Unai Emery and Villa take Paris Saint-Germain to the brink
Unai Emery and his players were bullish. They believed and they told us so. But there was an unwritten, unspoken waypoint mapped out that they achieved, incredibly, after being four goals behind in their quarter-final tie.
Aston Villa ended their first Champions League campaign in style. 42 years after their last European Cup quest ended at the quarter-final stage, Villa saved their best performance of the season for what they hope will prove its biggest stage bar one.
In roaring back from 0-2 on the night and 1-5 on aggregate, the Lions made co-commentator Alan Shearer ask the question Villa supporters quietly had in mind as a secondary target against Paris Saint-Germain.
“They couldn’t, could they?”
Villa’s maiden Champions League voyage concluded with a lot still to learn but no room for regrets. The players, the entire club as a collective, should feel superhuman for the rest of the season.
Just as Villa’s win on the night should be framed as such, so a defeat over two legs means this quarter-final ultimately belonged to PSG. Yet for Villa, it puffed out chests and straightened backs and jutted jaws.
Their performance in the second leg revealed a team that can come back from two goals down to beat any opposition football can throw at them. They can finish in the top five in the Premier League. They can win the FA Cup.
“I am so proud,” said Emery after the second leg. “I am so happy and really confident about how we are increasing our standards and demands.”
That sense of satisfaction isn’t about cheerfully wallowing in glorious defeat. There’s no lowering of standards here. That they won the second let outright wasn’t enough to take them to the semi-final but it matters to Emery that it was a win.
It’s not every season that Villa reach the middle of April with successes still on offer but Villa continue to battle on two fronts.
Finding a positive way to exit the Champions League counted for something and Villa went out kicking and screaming and scratching and clawing against the team that might very well end PSG’s desperate and expensive wait to win the Champions League.
Dawn of the Lionhearts
Under the lights of Villa Park a new generation rose to the occasion, undaunted by the size of the task or the might of the opposition.
Youri Tielemans used European football as a springboard in the early days of his Villa career, thriving in the Conference League even as a firm footing seemed elusive domestically.
Tielemans has been one of Villa’s most important players in 2024/25 and rarely more so than the second leg against PSG. He scored their first goal and played like a man built for the latter stages of the Champions League.
Marcus Rashford, perhaps a little unsure of himself in the first half, was exceptional in the second. He provided the creative thrust behind Villa’s comeback. His set pieces were a threat and the skill in making Ezri Konsa’s goal was as good as anything he’s produced in a Villa shirt.
So fabulous is Morgan Rogers that watching him shimmy and shake in a Champions League quarter-final, sliding past the probable winning team’s midfielders and defenders as if they were pub players, wasn’t the least bit surprising. Rogers isn’t just electrifying. He’s damned near complete.
The last action of the tie was Ian Maatsen’s beautifully struck blocked shot in stoppage time. Roll the tape back a couple of seconds and you’ll find Matty Cash winning the ball and beating a man in Villa’s attacking third at the end of a monstrous shift on the right.
Villa’s game plan left him one on one with PSG’s galaxy of attacking stars for 90 minutes by design. He should have been out on his feet. Instead, he put his team on the cusp of history.
And then there was the captain. The Mighty Meatball. Super John McGinn. Villa’s skipper was their engine and their heart against PSG, a pest and a rat and a top-class football player all rolled into one finely tuned, immovable arse.
Without McGinn, Villa would have lost this tie long before 180 minutes were up. But then, without McGinn they’d still be in the Championship. He’ll have a statue outside Villa Park one day, on top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese.
If you have to go out, go out like this
Every Villa player can be proud of his performance against PSG. Yes, there were chances to level the aggregate score and details in the goals conceded that can be picked over and corrected in hindsight, but there really isn’t any point in focusing on that.
The post-match analysis on Amazon Prime spiralled into the narrative treacle of regret as the pundits talked themselves into believing that this quarter-final was a missed opportunity.
Clarence Seedorf managed to stay above it for the most part but Gabby Logan, Daniel Sturridge, Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney talked in circles about the minutiae of what might have been. Gabriel Clarke asked Emery and a crestfallen Konsa about it too.
The mistake of the panel was to analyse this as a straightforward football match, not exactly ignorant of the simple fact that Villa started two goals behind but certainly muddled by it. Before, during and after the match, nobody seemed to quite know the extent to which Villa should stick or twist.
Assessing the first half at Villa Park in isolation meant the Prime coverage felt slightly off-kilter with the moment, fixating on Villa’s openness in the first half and missed chances in the second.
Even in the searing afterglow Emery, his players and Villa’s supporters were more able to accept that the magical second half was a consequence of the goals conceded in the first and that missing out on extra time by a single goal was a positive near miss, not a technical failure.
Subsequently, the tone of the post-match conversation didn’t tally with Villa’s reality. The Prime team mused on repeat about regret, about letting go of the disappointment, about moving on with big games still to come.
Really, Emery’s challenge isn’t to move on but to harness everything about the second leg and weaponise it for the Premier League and FA Cup matches ahead.
This was a springboard not a sand trap. There are many ways to go out of the Champions League and this was far from the worst.
‘This is Villa Park’
Villa’s long unbeaten run at home will come to an end but it was important that it wasn’t taken down by PSG. After losing the first leg, standing up their home form against one of the continent’s leading lights could be worth its weight in silverware.
While outsiders spoke mournfully of regret, the Lions roared with pride and belief and defiance. This is our home. You might win the tie and you might end the season as champions of Europe, but you’re not winning here.
That mindset could be crucial in Villa’s last seven – eight, they hope – matches of 2024/25. If they can ride that wave to an FA Cup win and a top-five finish in the Premier League, bowing out of the Champions League in the way they did would make this an almost flawless season.
Six years after promotion from the second tier, Villa built up a head of steam in Europe’s premier club competition with famous nights in abundance.
Jhon Durán’s goal to beat Bayern Munich. Wins at Young Boys Bern and RB Leipzig to prove they belonged. Celtic. Club Brugge once, then twice, after being sucker-punched by the same opponents in the league phase.
These were the moments and memories to take into what Villa supporters hope will be an ever better future.
But never mind next year. By coming from two goals behind to beat PSG and getting within a whisker or two of a European resurrection for the ages, Villa set a tone they must now adhere to for the rest of this season.
They’ve established a marker and their prospects are suddenly very simple: meet that standard consistently between now and 17th May and we’ll be talking about this season for generations.
Forget regret. There’s work to do.
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