Three unanswered Aston Villa goals stirred fears of another PSG Champions League collapse, but the two favorites survived and advanced to the semifinals. (Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
(Catherine Ivill – AMA via Getty Images)
Paris Saint-Germain staved off a furious Aston Villa comeback to join Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals on a nearly unforgettable Tuesday night in Europe.
At halftime of two simultaneous quarterfinals, each favorite had a three-goal aggregate lead. Barca held onto its advantage, and beat Dortmund 5-3 over two legs. PSG, meanwhile, had been ahead 5-1 in Tuesday’s first half, and looked comfortable.
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But in the second, Villa fought back to within 5-4, and fears of another Champions League collapse spread throughout Paris. Trapped in a cauldron of noise in the English Midlands, the French champions relinquished control of a chaotic quarterfinal tie. Villa scored in the 55th minute, and again in the 57th, and just kept on coming.
But PSG withstood the relentless pressure, stabilized over the final 15 minutes, and advanced to the semis, where it will face either Arsenal or Real Madrid.
Barcelona, which lost 3-1 on Tuesday but progressed with a two-goal cushion, will play either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich. The second set of quarterfinals is Wednesday (3 p.m. ET, Paramount+).
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The story of Tuesday, though, was the eventual losers. Their persistence, in the face of early setbacks and first-leg deficits, was inspiring. In Dortmund, Germany, Serhou Guirassy’s hat trick put a scare into Barca. In Birmingham, England, Villa nearly overwhelmed a team that has still not lost in its domestic league this season.
Barca, wielding a 4-0 first-leg lead, ultimately kept Dortmund at arm’s length.
PSG, on the other hand, nearly succumbed to a comeback for the ages.
The night began with the Parisians cruising. Villa played with passion and verve; PSG countered with precision, and went ahead 1-0, then 2-0 on the night — and 5-1 on aggregate, on the back of a 3-1 win in last week’s first leg.
Villa, though, was undeterred. It pressed opportunistically and unreservedly. It flowed forward as a robust midfield unit. It squandered chances, then finally took one in the 34th minute. Youri Tielemans scored, pumped his fists, then raced back to the center circle for more.
Ten minutes into the second half, John McGinn got a second. Two minutes after that, Marcus Rashford bamboozled PSG, and Ezri Konsa scored a third. Villa Park erupted. Belief gushed from the souls of 40,000 fans, into the Villa players, and all across England’s second city.
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For five, 10, 15, 20 minutes, Villa rode that wave of passion.
Tielemans nearly scored a third in five minutes.
Marco Asensio, the Spanish attacker on loan from PSG to Villa, waltzed in 1-v-1 with PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, but Donnarumma made perhaps the best of his five saves.
Two minutes later, Konsa flung himself at a teasing Rashford cross, and whiffed on a free header. But it seemed, surely, that a Villa equalizer was coming.
But PSG recovered. It survived the onslaught. It survived a clean Ian Maatsen volley in the third minute of stoppage time, thanks to defender William Pacho, who blocked the goalbound effort a few yards clear of the goal line.
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And so, at the end of a frantic, gripping Champions League night, PSG and Barca stood tall, and confident, in the semis.
A blow-by-blow recap of the two games is below.
