Their players were rattled. Their goalkeeper was pulling off save after save. For Paris Saint-Germain, another brutal “remontada” looked on the cards in the Champions League.
This time, the French champions just about hung on.
PSG staved off a gallant fightback by Aston Villa to reach the semifinals of Europe's top competition despite a 3-2 loss to the English club on Tuesday.
Holding a 3-1 lead from last week's quarterfinal first leg, PSG built a four-goal cushion thanks to goals by full backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes inside 27 minutes at Villa Park.
Villa, cheered on by Prince William, roared back thanks to a deflected shot before halftime by Youri Tielemans and then goals in a two-minute span from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa by the 57th.
Only a string of brilliant stops from PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma denied Villa a fourth goal that would have taken the match to extra time and seen the French club blow another four-goal lead — just like it did famously when losing to Barcelona in 2017, when current Villa manager Unai Emery was in charge of PSG.
“I don't think we could have done anymore,” Konsa said.
PSG advanced 5-4 on aggregate to knock out a second Premier League team, after Liverpool in the round of 16. Next up could be another in Arsenal, which leads Real Madrid 3-0 from the first leg.
In Tuesday's other quarterfinal, Barcelona advanced 5-3 on aggregate after losing 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund in the second leg.
PSG advanced to the semifinals for the third time in five seasons and this time they've done it without their “galacticos,” with Neymar, Lionel Messi and most recently Kylian Mbappé having left the club.
“I think over the two matches, we deserved to win,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “We are very happy because this is the second year in a row in the semifinals. Now we want to go to the next phase.”
Before the return leg against Villa, this new-look PSG was being talked up as a potential Champions League winner but that viewpoint might be checked given the way the team nearly collapsed at Villa Park.
There was as much relief as joy in the celebrations of PSG's players, who are bidding to win the club's first Champions League title. It lost in the final to Bayern Munich in 2020 and was eliminated in the semifinals by Dortmund last season.
“We believed in the end we were going to go through,” Marquinhos, PSG's Brazilian center back, said in comments from Portuguese to English on British broadcaster Amazon Prime. “But this is the Champions League — the games are always going to be difficult.”
Donnarumma ended up being PSG's savior, diving full length to claw away a powerful shot by Marcus Rashford and a header by Tielemans, and then standing tall to keep out Marco Asensio — a player on loan from PSG — when the playmaker was clean through.
Then, with virtually the last kick of the game, Villa substitute Ian Maatsen sent in a volley that might have been swerving into the bottom corner, only for PSG defender Willian Pacho to block the shot near the line.
And so for Villa, it marked the end of the road in the club's first European Cup campaign since 1982-83 season — when it was the reigning champion. Now it's all about qualifying again, with Villa sitting in seventh place in the Premier League and a point off the Champions League qualification spots.
“We showed tonight we can compete at the highest level,” Konsa said.
