Unai Emery insisted Aston Villa can overturn a two-goal deficit in their Champions League second leg with Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday and reach the semi-finals. Emery said defeat “was not the best but not the worst” and acknowledged his former club showed their class after magnificent goals by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué and Nuno Mendes propelled PSG to a first-leg victory.
Mendes completed the scoring in second-half stoppage time but Emery was adamant the goal does not significantly alter Villa’s target. “The last goal is a little bit disappointing for us because it was in the last minute but it is not changing much, or our belief,” the Villa manager said.
“It is not changing a lot because at 2-1 we were thinking, in the next match, we have to play to win. With 3-1, it is still the same. We need to win the next match, and not only [score] one goal but [at least] two.
“We were close to getting a good result. At the end with this goal it is still more or less the same because we still need to win next week. Villa Park is our home and hopefully we can be stronger and win more of our duels. They showed their power and individual qualities. The result is not the best but it’s not the worst. There are still 90 minutes to play, a second leg, and maybe extra time.”
Morgan Rogers, who scored Villa’s goal to earn them a shock 35th‑minute lead, said: “There’s loads of belief in the changing room. We have nothing to lose, nobody thought we’d win the tie in the first place. Why not just go for it? We’ve definitely got the quality to turn things around. It’s not done yet.”
PSG dominated the match, averaging 75% possession and the Ligue 1 champions had 29 shots compared to Villa’s seven, with 10 and two on target respectively. But Luis Enrique was reluctant to consider it job done.
“If we look at what happened yesterday during the Champions League [Arsenal beating Real Madrid 3-0], I don’t think it’s fair to talk about favourites,” the PSG head coach said. “What does [being] ‘favourites’ mean? The only goal we have is to win the match in Birmingham.
“We don’t know how to play differently. We don’t know how to play in a low block. Maybe one day it will be necessary to play like that, but our job is to be aggressive.”
