Paris Saint-Germain survived an attack on the second half to beat Aston Villa 5-4 on Aggregate and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League despite a 3-2 defeat on Tuesday. The French champions rushed to the last four when the Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes files struck in the first 27 minutes to add in their advance by 3-1. Youri Tielemans withdrew a goal for the English side before half-time and two goals in two minutes from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa transformed the draw at the start of the second period.
PSG was grateful to the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma for having kept the men of Unai Emery at a distance and prevented another famous collapse in the Knockout stadiums of the Champions League.
“In the end, we made them suffer as we did,” said Emery.
“Getting this level is the next step I want to try to build with Aston Villa.”
The boss of Villa Emery was in charge of PSG when Barcelona of Luis Enrique canceled a deficit of 4-0 at first glance with a dramatic victory 6-1 in 2017.
Luis Enrique was again victorious on his compatriot, but this time was the one who watched his team almost exploded an apparently unassailable advance.
“I must say that the match for us is something that allows us to grow and try to compete even better,” said Luis Enrique.
“In all of the two games, we deserve to win and we are very happy because it is the second consecutive year in the semi-finals.”
Villa had not lived a European evening like this since 1983 and there was an embarrassing moment for the hosts before a balloon was launched while the anthem of the Europa League was played instead of the famous pre-match hymn of the Champions League.
Luis Enrique’s surprise decision to start Bradley Barcola in front of the Desire Doue was justified at only 11 minutes when he sprinted the left and Emiliano Martinez overturned his crossing on the Hakimi path, which fired the opening at home.
Another dazzling break from visitors opened the villa while Ousmane Dembele has square so that the left back Mendes caresses in his fourth goal of the Champions League of the season and the second of equality.
Royals in rapture
Villa’s refusal to abandon the fight was rewarded when Tielemans’ divert effort withdrew a goal before half-time.
The fanatic prince of Villa William and his son George were part of the home support which were in delight because what seemed to be an impossible fighter approached reality.
McGinn’s deflected effort flew to the upper corner to restore parity at night at 2-2.
Emery’s decision to start with Marcus Rashford in front in front of the top scorer Ollie Watkins was controversial before kick -off.
Rashford has been reborn since a January -to -date loan from Manchester United.
The English international was denied a goal by an astonishing judgment of Donnarumma.
But in the resulting corner, Rashford Nutmegged Fabian Ruiz, jumped in front of Vitinha and cut the ball so that Konsa slips with the near post.
One PSG side that looked imperative in the first 45 minutes was suddenly at sea while Villa missed a series of chances of taking the game for more time.
Donnarumma produced more brilliant stops to deny Tielemans, then Marco Asensio against his parent club.
Willian Pacho blocked Ian Maatta’s goal of the time to refuse the villa to death.
But they have exceeded expectations in their first experience in the elite level of European football for more than four decades.
For PSG, their quest to win the competition for the first time has happened and they have rarely had a better opportunity to finish this expectation.
Arsenal is their probable opponents in the semi-finals while the Gunners take an advantage of 3-0 in the quarter-final in the first stage for holders of Real Madrid on Wednesday.
On the other half of the draw, Barcelona will face Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in a heavyweight confrontation.
But PSG is undoubtedly the side of the shape of the continent and with the title of Ligue 1 for a long time which has sewn, can be fully concentrated on the conquest of Europe in Munich on May 31.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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