Aston Villa 3–2 PSG: Player Ratings From Thrilling Champions League Night at Villa Park

The goal Nuno Mendes (center) scored at Villa Park sent PSG through to the semifinals. | IMAGO/Sportimage

Paris Saint-Germain held off a ferocious comeback by Aston Villa to punch their tickets to the Champions League semifinals.

PSG came into the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie with Aston Villa up 3–1 on aggregate and picked up right where they left off at the Parc des Princes. Bradley Barcola capped off a blistering counterattack with a cross into the box that Emiliano Martínez spilled into the path of Achraf Hakimi, who buried the opening goal in the 11th minute.

Just when Aston Villa had a few decent looks at goal, another counterattack from PSG completely carved Unai Emery's side in a matter of seconds. This time, it was Ousmane Dembélé who took off down the right side of the pitch. The Frenchman then found Nuno Mendes in acres of space inside the box and the left back fired an inch-perfect strike off the post and into the back of the net to give PSG the 2–0 lead.

The hosts pulled one back in the 34th minute with a bit of luck. Youri Tielemans sent a hopeful shot toward Gianluigi Donnarumma that took a massive deflection off Willian Pacho and into the back of the net. The goal gave Aston Villa a glimmer of hope as they went down the tunnel still trailing by three goals on aggregate.

Emery's men kicked off the second half with a renewed sense of energy. John McGinn sent Villa Park to its feet with a spectacular effort from distance that beat Donnarumma and put the hosts level on the night. Just three minutes later, Marcus Rashford made a dazzling run into the box and found Ezri Konsa, who slotted home Aston Villa's third goal of the match.

The hosts could not complete their comeback, though. PSG held Aston Villa off for the remaining 30 minutes of the match and did just enough to punch their tickets to the Champions League semifinals. Having crashed out of the competition in devastating fashion, Villa will be thinking back to the stoppage-time goal they conceded in Paris for a long time.

Check out player ratings from the match below.