Unai Emery has challenged his Aston Villa players to secure Champions League qualification again after they were eliminated from the competition on Tuesday night.
Aston Villa were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night despite a 3-2 victory over Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park.
Nuno Mendes’ late injury-time goal in last week’s first leg turned out to be pivotal, though Emery’s men did battle from 2-0 down on the night to beat the French champions 3-2.
Villa gave everything and more to fight back and set up a tense finish for PSG – who knocked out Premier League champions-elect in the previous round.
It was a Champions League campaign to be proud of for Villa having finished in the top eight of the league phase to qualify automatically for the last 16 and comfortably knocking out Club Brugge to set up a tie with Luis Enrique’s side.
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Head coach Emery, animated as ever on the sideline during the 90 minutes, emphasised the importance of qualifying for the Champions League again with a top-five finish in the Premier League.
He said: “I am very proud of everything. Getting to this level is the next step forward, I want to try to win with Aston Villa. We played two legs, we competed well and it wasn’t even. Today we competed better and we were close to the result.
“I want to try to work for my next process at Aston Villa. The crowd was fantastic, they gave us energy. Even at 2-0. Still, a little bit more to do better to try to get it.
“Every player at this level has a huge level to play and to try and be a protagonist. We were a protagonist as well with our skills. We were focused on our game plan. I was thinking only to play out game plan and be consistent. We were attacking and those transitions, they were clinical. We knew it. We tried to avoid transition and today we took the new game plan and were pushing more.
“It is now most important to get Europe again. The most important competition is the Champions League. The challenge we have for the last six matches is to try and get Europe and the Champions League.”
Villa captain John McGinn scored his side’s second of the night to make it 5-3 on aggregate and revealed his pride after the match.
“Obvious disappointment but I am proud of my team-mates, proud of the club,” the Scotland midfielder said.
“We have come a long way. We were so, so close tonight. We just fell a little bit short. We had chances to take the game to extra-time but we’ve got to be proud about the way we come back against one of the best teams in the world, to fight to the end.
“We want more. We want to be back here next season and we will try our best to do that.
“I’ve never played against Real Madrid or Barcelona, but in my career they’re the best team I have faced. I’m getting old and I certainly wouldn’t like to play against them every week.”
On Emery’s half-time talk, McGinn added: “He said ‘I’m proud of the performance, keep going, you just never know’. We never gave up. It was chaos, but we gave absolutely everything and I think every Aston Villa supporter will leave with a huge sense of pride.”
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PSG boss Enrique added: “We cannot forget, this is the Champions League and the other team has a lot of quality. Aston Villa played with a lot of intensity. The whole two matches, we deserved to win.
“The second year in a row in the semi-finals and we want to go into the next phase.
“I think have the best squad in the world, not only the best goalkeeper. You have a lot of quality players at a club like PSG. That’s football and that’s competition.
Speaking after PSG reached their fourth Champions League semi-final in six seasons, club captain Marquinhos told Amazon Prime: “We knew it was going to be a difficult game. We had belief, we kept our intensity and we believed until the end we were going to go through.
“It is such a difficult competition but we are getting better and better and we are proving we are good team. There is belief that we can go all the way and win it this year.”
Elsewhere in the Champions League on Tuesday night, Barcelona also suffered a scare, losing 3-1 away to Borussia Dortmund after winning the first leg 4-0 at home.
Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick for the Germans but it was ultimately not enough.
Real Madrid host Arsenal – the only remaining Premier League side in the competition – on Wednesday after the Gunners’ fantastic 3-0 win at the Emirates last week, while Inter host Bayern Munich after a 2-1 win at the Allianz Arena in their first leg.
