Aston Villa fall short of miraculous Champions League comeback as PSG hold on

Paris St Germain kept his dream of a first title of the Champions League alive by beating Aston Villa 5-4 in aggregate after an exciting game back from his quarterfinals that the English team won 3-2.

Before 3-1 from the first leg, PSG seemed to have sealed the contest within the first half hour when their Full-Backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes were scored with two counterattacks that flow to stun the multitude of Villa Park.

But Youri Tielemans revived hope with a deviated goal of 34 minutes before Villa surprised visitors at the beginning of the second half with two goals in two minutes from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.

Villa went ahead, taking out a series of outstanding salvages from the PSG goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, to preserve the aggregate victory and allow his team to move to a semifinal against Real Madrid or Arsenal.

The PSG were favorites to win the quarterfinals given their advantage of the first leg and its recent form, including the sealing of a fourth consecutive title of Ligue 1 and reaching the French Cup final.

But Villa did not miss beliefs, especially at home, where they were in an undefeated race of 17 games in all competitions. The hosts flew out, almost taking the front of a corner in an early burst of attacks.

However, the PSG hit the first blood in the 11th minute when Hakimi stroked the ball after the villa goalkeeper, usually ultra reliable, Emiliano Martínez, pushed him on his way.

Sixteen minutes later, Mendes snuggled in the second goal of Villa del Post at the end of another rapid flow counterattack.

Tielemans’s goal in the first half seemed unlikely to balance the draw, but inspired Villa to get out in the second half, with McGinn letting fly from outside the box to score in the 55th minute, helped by a small deviation.

Then Konza hit Villa’s third at night after being prepared with a bright dribble from Marcus Rashford.

One more goal would have put the level of villa together, but Donnarumma challenged Rashford, Tielemans and then replaced Marco Asensio for a nerve end.

Reuters