Au revoir, Aston Villa. But if there was a way to exit the Champions League, this was it. An epic, extraordinary effort was in vain and yet valiant and magnificent. They will not join the class of 1982 in tasting European glory, but there was a doomed glory to this. They beat the side Unai Emery declared the favourites to win the Champions League on the night. They threatened a comeback to rival the Remontada Luis Enrique’s Barcelona produced to beat Emery’s Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. Two goals behind on the evening, trailing 5-1 on aggregate, Villa scored three times in response.
Like Bayern Munich before them, Paris Saint-Germain were beaten in Birmingham. But if it was only over 90 minutes, there may be a legacy if the frailties Villa highlighted can be exposed by Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semi-final. They took on PSG’s running machines and rattled them with their relentlessness. A team with 17 wins in their previous 18 games ended up buffeted, relieved there were only three minutes of injury time.
