Aston Villa host Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of our Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday night, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa will be looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit after defeat in the French capital last week, and given the impressive nature of the performance from the Ligue 1 champions, it certainly promises to be a difficult challenge to advance to the last four of the competition.
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Nevertheless, there is quality and belief in this group that we can still get the job done, and it promises to be a fantastic atmosphere at Villa Park as the Villa faithful get behind the players in their bid to create another memorable European night.
Emery has greatly benefitted from having a stronger squad at his disposal in recent weeks, and it had been hoped that we didn’t pick up any fresh setbacks in our 3-0 win over Southampton this past weekend as he provided the latest update on teams news ahead of facing Luis Enrique’s side.
Further, he emphasised the importance of the role that the fans will play as Villa look to produce a major upset, while also delivering a simple yet brilliantly clear message to all concerned that the objective has changed slightly given what happened in France last week, but we are ultimately capable of achieving it.
“Our expectation is to get a good result in the second leg,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference, as per BBC Sport. “Of course the fact that they won 3-1 is changing something. But a lot? No. Why? Because we have to win. We had to win with 2-1 and with 3-1 now. But now, we have to win with one more goal.”
“We are going to train this afternoon and it is important to see how all the players are. We played on Saturday and were training yesterday morning. We need to train today and have a look every player.
“I don’t have in my mind a starting 11 but I have a plan overall of how we should be playing. We are preparing for each game with every player. They need to understand how we have to manage not only physically but also mentally.”
“PSG have a lot of experience playing in away matches. They are playing in France and Europe and we have as well.
“But we will be connecting with our supporters and transmitting the energy, More or less, if we do, tactically and individually, good things on the field, the supporters are going to up our energy and help us a lot. They are going to transmit that energy always for our players.
“I have experiences of comebacks. Both positive and negative. But now, it’s something different. We want to write the history of Aston Villa – last year in the Conference League, this year in the Champions League and hopefully for years to come in Europe.”
PSG were dominant in possession and control in the first meeting, and so with the onus on Villa to take the game to the French giants, our approach will have to change as we go in search of at least two unanswered goals.
Naturally, that gameplan will have its flaws too with our opponents likely to relish the possibility of a more open game with the technical quality, pace and goal threat that they have in their side, and so Villa will have to be almost perfect at both ends of the pitch while trying to impose ourselves more effectively in midfield to control the game.
It’s certainly going to take a huge effort from all involved, but as reiterated by Morgan Rogers when speaking to the media after Emery, there is real belief in the group that we can do it, and if we’re able to score the opening goal of the game relatively early, that will set the stage for what could be a fantastic night at Villa Park.
