Aston Villa face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up.
The Villa boss makes eight changes to the side that beat Nottingham Forest last weekend, having opted to rotate with such a strong squad at his disposal as we continue to compete on multiple fronts.
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While Emiliano Martinez keeps his place between the posts, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne all come in to form our backline after being rested last time out.
Youri Tielemans continues in midfield but is partnered by Boubacar Kamara, while John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey join Morgan Rogers in our attacking trident, with Marcus Rashford leading the Villa line.
Emery faced a number of key decisions from a tactical perspective for this encounter, and it could be argued that he has got all of them spot on with Pau giving us composure at the back, McGinn providing additional tenacity and energy in midfield while Rashford’s pace on the counter could be decisive.
While the objective will be to return home in a strong position for the second leg next week, there is plenty of quality and experience in this Villa starting line-up to make it a reality, while we once again boast a strong bench that can potentially make the difference if called upon.
Nevertheless, it promises to be a difficult challenge against the recently crowned Ligue 1 champions, who have shown their class through the competition and will undoubtedly pose one of the biggest threats we’ve faced in our European run thus far.
In turn, it will take a huge effort from all concerned to get the desired outcome in the French capital on Wednesday night, while it’s hoped that Emery will mastermind the perfect gameplan to put the players in a position to go out and execute it efficiently.
Team news is in 👊 UP THE VILLA pic.twitter.com/UON4uTAAPj
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 9, 2025
COME ON VILLA!