PARIS — Unai Emery said Aston Villa can overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Paris Saint-Germain by being “strong” at home in next Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg at Villa Park.
Despite taking a first-half lead through Morgan Rogers at the Parc des Princes, PSG were rewarded for their dominance of the game by sealing a 3-1 victory in the French capital.
A Nuno Mendes goal two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the game made Villa’s second-leg task much more difficult by extending PSG’s lead to two goals, but with Villa winning four of their five Champions League home games this season — the Premier League side kept four clean sheets in those games — Emery said his team can still progress to the semifinals.
“The third goal doesn’t change a lot,” Emery said. “At 2-1 we were thinking of the second leg as a game that we would want to win. We’re still here — I’m really proud of the players.
“How we’re developing at Aston Villa, in our demands, playing here against PSG. We competed fantastically. We were close to a good result.
“The last goal we conceded, we have to accept it. Our mind doesn’t change a lot — we have to win at home and by more than one goal. It will be a huge challenge for us, but we will feel strong at home with our supporters at Villa Park.”
Villa forward Rogers, who put his team ahead following a counter-attack sparked by John McGinn‘s tackle on Mendes on the halfway line, said that PSG showed how “deadly” they can be with their goals from Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Mendes.
“We knew it would be difficult and knew how deadly they are,” Rogers said. “We didn’t want to just come here and be spectators.
“It was difficult. They’re a really good team and have stars all over the place. It’s difficult when you have to defend so much and battle. We did that, but in the end, it was the quality from them and maybe some mistakes from us.
“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.”
