Au revoir, Aston Villa. But if there was a way to exit the Champions League, this was it. An epic, extraordinary effort was in vain and yet valiant and magnificent. They will not join the class of 1982 in tasting European glory, but there was a doomed glory to this. They beat the side Unai Emery declared the favourites to win the Champions League on the night. They threatened a comeback to rival the Remontada Luis Enrique’s Barcelona produced to beat Emery’s Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. Two goals behind on the evening, trailing 5-1 on aggregate, Villa scored three times in response.
Like Bayern Munich before them, Paris Saint-Germain were beaten in Birmingham. But if it was only over 90 minutes, there may be a legacy if the frailties Villa highlighted can be exposed by Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semi-final. They took on PSG’s running machines and rattled them with their relentlessness. A team with 17 wins in their previous 18 games ended up buffeted, relieved there were only three minutes of injury time.
For Villa, a first European Cup run in 42 years ended too soon. They departed rueing the injury-time goal Nuno Mendes scored in Paris and the reflexes of the outstanding Gianluigi Donnarumma showed at Villa Park but cherishing memories of a special night. “We can feel happy, we can feel proud,” said Emery. “In our process, tonight was the highest level we achieved.”
There was Marcus Rashford, playing like a man possessed, his revival accelerated as he tore into PSG. There was John McGinn, powering a fightback in idiosyncratic fashion. There was Youri Tielemans, his terrific season garnished with their first goal. There was Ezri Konsa, slotting in his shot to put Villa 3-2 up, giving them half an hour to score the goal that would earn extra time.
It eluded them. Indeed, the closest they came was courtesy of the man they borrowed from the French capital. PSG have conjured some tragicomic ways to go out of the Champions League in the last decade. Had this been powered by a goal from Marco Asensio, a player they own, it would have been among the most galling. But Donnarumma saved his shot. The hero of Anfield was PSG’s rescuer at Villa Park, eliminating an English club again.
It took a combination of an inspired goalkeeper and flying full-backs to finish Villa off. PSG’s goals in the first half-hour showed they were kings of the break. For Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, counter-attack may have been the best form of defence.
It illustrated the buccaneering brilliance of this PSG team. It is not in their nature to sit on a scoreline. Rather than defending a 3-1 lead, their full-backs ran from deep in their own half to score. The opener may have had a particular popularity on the other side of the English Channel.
Emi Martinez, the bete noire of the French public, was culpable on a day when his bravado backfired. PSG scored with the last attack of the game in Paris and their first of note in Birmingham. Luis Enrique had brought back Bradley Barcola and was vindicated as the winger sped away to cross, Martinez parried it out of Ousmane Dembele’s reach and Hakimi, who had run 80 yards from his own back four, followed up to score.
What one full-back could do, another could emulate. Mendes had struck in the first leg. He scored in the second, too, bending in a shot from the edge of the box, found by Dembele after a lightning break that carried PSG the length of the pitch.
So far, tres bien for PSG. “At 2-0, we nearly had Villa on the canvas,” said Luis Enrique. They did not supply the knockout blow after a superb start. His team combatted rain, wind and cold, with bare-chested Parisian supporters bouncing in inclement conditions. It contributed to a wonderful atmosphere. Villa Park has rarely been louder. They turned the volume up for ‘Hi Ho Aston Villa’. If PSG were not intimidated by the sound of Jeff Beck, the sight of John McGinn induced more worries.
The captain led the response. So did Tielemans. Aggrieved to be denied a penalty a minute earlier, he finished off a fine move that involved McGinn and Rashford, albeit aided by a telling touch off Pacho.
It was not the last one. The defender completed an unwanted double, McGinn’s shot looping up off him and over Donnarumma. A second goal in three minutes followed, Rashford surging the byline to pick out Konsa.
It came amid a fearless, ferocious start to the second half from Villa. Donnarumma, who had denied Pau Torres before the break, had to distinguish himself. Sandwiching McGinn’s goal, Donnarumma made very different but terrific saves from Rashford. The hero of Anfield clawed away a header from Tielemans. He denied Asensio. “Sensational,” said Luis Enrique.
But if the goalkeeper displayed defiance, PSG showed vulnerabilities. Here Villa were, attempting attack after attack, amassing 17 shots, Emery descending into histrionics on the touchline as the fourth goal would not come. “I didn’t think we would be knocked out at any moment,” said Luis Enrique. But an admission followed. “I don’t think this team has been so dominated by another team in this way.”
Villa nevertheless became just the fifth side to beat PSG this season. But like the fourth, Liverpool, they still went out over two legs. But PSG ended up celebrating a defeat, surviving the thriller at Villa, stumbling on where they seemed set to surge.
