Aston Villa out of Champions League as thrilling fightback comes up just short

By Jonathan Veal, PA

Aston Villa’s Champions League dream is over after they fell agonisingly short of pulling off one of the great comebacks against Paris St Germain.

Villa looked dead and buried midway through the first half when goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the French champions up 2-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.

But a rousing response saw Unai Emery’s men hit back through Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa to put them 3-2 up on the night and within one goal of PSG, who won the first leg 3-1 last week.

They had a golden chance to send the game to extra time, but Marco Asensio, playing against his parent club, could not convert when one-on-one with Gianluigi Donnarumma, and that will haunt them as they went down to a 5-4 aggregate defeat.

It ends a memorable campaign, with a famous group stage win over Bayern Munich among many special nights, as Villa harboured hopes of repeating their 1982 European Cup triumph.

Their season is not over as they are in a fight to get back into this competition next season, while they still have their sights on silverware, with an FA Cup semi-final next weekend.

PSG had looked like the team to beat as they aim to win this competition for the first time, but Villa proved their fallability – which prospective semi-final opponents Arsenal would have observed.

This was the biggest night at Villa Park since they were beaten by Juventus in the 1983 quarter-final, though the pre-match fanfare ended in a damp squib when the Europa League anthem was embarrassingly played instead of the Champions League tune.

The opening 27 minutes proved an even bigger dampener as PSG scored twice to seemingly put the tie out of reach.

They opened the scoring in the 11th minute as they launched a devastating counter-attack, with Emiliano Martinez unable to hold Bradley Barcola’s cross which allowed Hakimi to slam home from 12 yards.

As the hosts went for it, PSG exploited massive holes in the Villa defence, going 2-0 up on the night when Ousmane Dembele broke down the right and squared to Nuno Mendes, who prouced a classy finish in off the post.

Villa made up some of the ground seven minutes later when Tielemans was played in by McGinn and his curled effort deflected in off Willian Pacho’s chest.

The evening turned in a blink of an eye as Villa scored twice in just under three minutes after the restart.

McGinn lit the blue touch paper in the 55th minute as his effort took another deflection off Pacho and looped over Donnarumma to make it 2-2 on the night and two behind PSG on aggregate.

The Italian goalkeeper then made a flying stop to deny Rashford’s brilliant effort, but from the resulting corner Villa went 3-2 up. Rashford produced more magic as he danced into the area and he teed up Konsa to sweep home from 10 yards.

Villa Park was rocking and the hosts smelled blood, with Tielemans bringing another save out of Donnarumma with a looping header before Pau Torres headed over.

The big moment came in the 69th minute as Villa had a golden chance to level on aggregate.

It appeared written in the stars as Asensio went through on goal against his parent club, but Donnarumma saved with his legs, and when Konsa missed a free header moments later, there was a sense their chance was gone.

Ian Maatsen had a shot cleared off the line at the end, but Villa went out with their heads held high.