Aston Villa welcome PSG to Villa Park with a two-goal deficit, but the tie is far from decided.
PSG have a history of collapsing in Champions League knockout ties, and Aston Villa will be keeping that at the back of their minds as the two sides lock horns for a second time.
If anyone can tell you about PSG’s ability to collapse, it’s Unai Emery. The Villa manager was in charge of Les Parisiens in that dramatic comeback at the Nou Camp, where Barcelona won 6-1 to overturn a first leg four-goal deficit.
Even the most optimistic and boastful Villa fan would never say that his club can match the quality of that Barca side in 2017. But the key point here is: it’s possible. This is a much smaller mountain to climb. It is far from hopeless, far from decided.
PSG are, without a doubt, aware of that. At the very least, it sets up a highly intriguing encounter.
What happened in the first leg?
Aston Villa scored first through a Morgan Rogers goal, but PSG struck back just four minutes later with a curl into the top corner by Desire Doue that oozed nothing but class.
Then early in the second half, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia danced beyond Villa defender Axel Disasi and rifled in a second for PSG.
Villa hung back and defended well the rest of the game against intense pressure from the Parisians, but just when they thought they would be playing the return leg with only a single-goal deficit, Nuno Mendes struck at stoppage time to extend the lead.
What Aston Villa coach Unai Emery has said
In his press conference ahead of Tuesday’s tie, Emery emphasised that his side need to have a solid strategy to win.
“We played how we wanted to at Paris Saint-Germain,” said the Spaniard, “but the result obviously wasn’t what we hoped for. If we are winning, we can be close.
“Our objective is to play with one strong plan in our tactical way tomorrow and try to be consistent and try to understand how the match is going in 90 minutes.
“When we were winning at Club Brugge also [in the round of 16], we were ready to play extra time. Our plan is the same that if we are getting extra time, that’s good and if we are getting a penalty shootout, that’s fantastic as well.”
Asked about his team’s chances of progressing, Emery said:
“I have experiences of comebacks. Both positive and negative.
“But now, it’s something different. We want to write the history of Aston Villa – last year in the Conference League, this year in the Champions League, and hopefully for years to come in Europe.”
“If anyone can do it, it’s us”: What Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers has said
Last week’s goal scorer Morgan Rogers, who accompanied his manager in the press conference, spoke positively about the team’s spirit and their willingness to go for a win.
“There’s massive belief in the dressing room,” said Rogers. “I know most people wrote us off before this tie. But in the first leg, we gave a good account of ourselves.
“Of course, there are things that we needed to improve on but we know [PSG] now. There is a task on our hands.
“Under the lights at home in the quarter-finals of this competition, there’s not many better places to be.
“If anyone is going to turn it around, it is going to be us. It’s down to us and we are excited for that challenge.
“It’s going to be difficult and I am not saying that we are going to do it, but we will definitely give it a shot and go out there to win.
What PSG manager Luis Enrique has said
“Of course, we were better in the first leg and deserved the win, but that story is behind us. Now a second story begins. We’ll see who’s better, who’s going to win.
“We have that advantage but it doesn’t fit in with our philosophy of thinking with certainty. We still have this idea of not calculating.
“If Aston Villa score or win, we have to show in this match that we have the level required to reach the semi-finals.”
