UCL: PSG Survive Aston Villa Scare, Advance to Semifinals

The visitors got off to a flying start, scoring twice early to take a 5-1 lead on aggregate. Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring in the 11th minute after Bradley Barcola sprinted down the left on a quick counter and aimed a cross toward Ousmane Dembélé on the far side.

Emiliano Martínez came off his line to intercept but couldn’t control the ball, pushing it straight to Hakimi, who calmly slotted it home. Following the Hakimi goal, it was the other PSG full-back that got in on the scoring action as Nuno Mendes gave the Parisians a two-goal lead.

At the start of the play, João Neves took a significant risk in the box and was close to giving Aston Villa a clear goal-scoring opportunity. But Marquinhos recovered, and PSG launched a counterattack. Dembélé then passed to Nuno Mendes in the center, who finished with his left foot.

PSG had a 5-1 aggregate lead and had control of this contest, but Aston Villa wasn’t going down without a fight. In the 34th minute, Youri Tielemans scored to give the home side momentum and hope heading into halftime.

On counterattack from Aston Villa, Tielemans, Marcus Rashford, and John McGinn combined well. The Belgian then took the shot, and it deflected off Willian Pacho into the net—Gianluigi Donnarumma had no chance.

In the second half, the Premier League side gave a scare to PSG by scoring two goals in just three minutes, the first coming from McGinn in the 55th minute, to cut the aggregate score to 5-4.

The Aston Villa captain charged up the pitch with the ball at his feet and fired a left-footed shot from 20 meters. It took a slight deflection on the way and slipped past Donnarumma, who had no chance.

In the 57th minute, Ezri Konsa would provide the goal, putting Aston Villa within one goal of sending the contest to extra time.

Off a corner for Aston Villa, the ball fell to Rashford, who brilliantly got past Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Vitinha before cutting it back to Konsa and the defender placed it with the inside of his foot.

Despite scoring three unanswered goals, the English club fell short of pulling off the comeback as they couldn't find the back of the net again. After the match, Dembélé spoke to Canal+ and shared his thoughts on the loss in the second leg.

"We have to be demanding, especially in matches like this. We made things difficult for ourselves. In the second half, we let up, we thought we were too good. At 2–1, we thought we were already through and that it was over. The Champions League is like that."

"You can come up against teams with a fiery crowd that can turn the game around. We’ll have to be more demanding for the semifinals. This match will serve as a lesson moving forward. We got the qualification, we’re happy. Now it’s back to work. We’ll try to do our best to reach the final."

The Stat: 6

French clubs have advanced in each of their last six Champions League quarterfinal appearances—AS Monaco in 2016-17, Olympique Lyonnais and PSG in 2019-20, and PSG again in 2020-21, 2023-24, and 2024-25—marking their best streak at this stage. The last time a French club was eliminated in the quarterfinals was PSG against Manchester City in 2015-16.

Photo credit: @PSG_English

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