Paris Saint-Germain stumbled into the Champions League semi-finals after an almighty scare against Aston Villa and the narrowest of aggregate wins.
Holding a two-goal lead following their 3-1 first-leg victory last week, goals from full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes appeared to have given the French side an unassailable lead, but Villa fought back and very, very nearly produced one of the Champions League’s most famous comebacks. Ultimately, though, PSG held on to progress to the last four of the competition.
They are likely to face Arsenal there, and they will have seen plenty to give them hope they can overcome a team that has been so impressive under Luis Enrique and has now seen off two English sides in this season’s competition, in Liverpool and now Villa.
The hosts had made a bright start, roared on by a vociferous crowd at a rocking Villa Park, but the atmosphere wasn’t enough to level the playing field against a PSG side bursting with attacking talent.
When PSG were allowed space to counter-attack into they did so to devastating effect. First, Bradley Barcola raced clear down the left and his cross was spilled by Emiliano Martínez straight to Hakimi. The right-back finished calmly to register his seventh goal involvement in the Champions League this season – the most of all defenders in the competition (2 goals, 5 assists).
Shortly afterwards, they went from back to front even more quickly with a string of fine passes out of defence that put Hakimi in space, and he set Ousmane Dembélé away down the right. The Frenchman squared for Nuno Mendes to slam home and double PSG’s lead, meaning both full-backs were on the scoresheet. Mendes has scored more goals than any other defender in the Champions League this season (four).
At 5-1 on aggregate at this point, the tie felt as good as over. The Villa Park crowd had lost its voice, and the PSG fans could have been forgiven for starting to think about the last four of the competition.
But driven on by midfield engine rooms Youri Tielemans and John McGinn, Villa somehow found a way back into it. Those two combined for Villa’s first goal to give them hope before the break.
Nobody could have foreseen what was to come, though. McGinn scored a deflected effort to level on the night, before Marcus Rashford danced through the PSG defence and crossed for Ezri Konsa to give Villa the lead on the night. The aggregate deficit had been reduced to a single goal.
PSG were on the receiving end of the most famous Champions League comebacks of all time back in 2016-17 when they lost 6-1 to Barcelona and surrendered a four-goal first-leg lead. They would have started to worry that they were about to do something even more catastrophic here.
But in the end, they just about stood firm. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made some huge late saves from Rashford, Tielemans and PSG-loanee Marco Asensio, while Konsa missed the ball entirely with the goal gaping.
PSG ran the clock down and held out to make it into the semis, but Villa may have done real damage. They exposed some glaring weaknesses that PSG’s semi-final opponents may well look to exploit as well.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Aston Villa vs PSG stats from their Premier League meeting at Villa Park.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well…