Morgan Rogers says Aston Villa have the belief they can turn their Champions League quarter-final tie with Paris St Germain around.
Villa’s European dream is hanging by a thread after a 3-1 first-leg defeat in Paris, with Nuno Mendes’ stoppage-time goal hurting Unai Emery’s side.
Until then, they had contained a classy PSG side who had overturned Rogers’ opener with superb goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and looked to be returning home with a single-goal deficit.
It’s not over. pic.twitter.com/p9bHnVutYp
— Morgan Rogers (@morgz_10) April 9, 2025
Their task seems much harder now, but Rogers insists his side can produce a comeback at Villa Park next week.
“It was difficult. They’re a really good team and have stars all over the place,” the England international said.
“It’s difficult when you have to defend so much and battle. We did, but in the end it was the quality from them and maybe some mistakes from us.
“We knew it would be difficult and knew how deadly they are. We didn’t want to just come here and be spectators.
“Obviously the scoreline is not in our favour, but we’ve got another game and we’ll try and turn it around.
“We’re here for a reason, we’re not here to just compete. We want to keep fighting and normally we have the quality to compete with any team in the world.
“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, who beat Liverpool in the previous round, look every inch potential winners as they dominated Villa throughout.
Boss Luis Enrique says they will not change their approach for next week’s second leg in Birmingham.
“If we look at what happened on Tuesday during the Champions League, I don’t think it’s fair to talk about favourites, what does favourites mean? It means whatever the result,” the Spaniard said.
“Our goal is to try and win the match, we don’t know how to play differently.
“We don’t know how to play in a low block, but our goal and objective is to keep the ball and be aggressive in offence. These are our weapons and this is what we will try to do.”
Dazzling Desire Doue inspires transformed PSG as Aston Villa taught lesson
Thursday’s briefing: Villa up against it after PSG loss as Matic and Onana clash
Unai Emery says PSG’s third goal does not change Villa’s task in second leg
Morgan Rogers insists Aston Villa ‘not done yet’ despite defeat to ‘deadly’ PSG
Anne Hathaway celebrates Arsenal’s Real Madrid victory with ‘North London Forever’
Nemanja Matic is right about Andre Onana – but he isn’t Man Utd’s biggest problem
