Unai Emery insists that her Aston Villa team has always believed despite a 3-1 defeat against PSG during their quarter-final of the Champions League on Wednesday in Paris.
Morgan Rogers had given Villa a surprise lead in a noisy prince park after 35 minutes, but sublime goals of Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes finished the return of the dominant champions of Ligue 1.
The result means that the Emery team has a monumental task in their hands in the second stage if they want to have a hope of going to the last four of the Europe Elite Club competition.
Viainage in Paris – We head for Villa Park for the return match next week. #PSGAVL #Ucl pic.twitter.com/juysb1adgf
– Aston Villa (@AvfCofficial) April 9, 2025
But the boss of Villa thinks that with home support, his team has the capacity to cause an upheaval next week at Villa Park.
“More or less the expectation that I had in 90 minutes [tonight] happened, ”admitted Emery.
“The result, maybe there is not much difference between 2-1 and 3-1 because we will play at home next week. It will always be a huge challenge for us, but we can feel strong at home with our support.
“We knew before the match, we had to be clinical and we were clinics in the first half. The second half no.
“The match is the first step. Of course, the result is not good for us, but it could be positive to be at home where we can get our momentum and use our power.
“We believe in our support, we believe in Villa Park. We think players can give the best performance next week. ”
Rogers echoed his manager’s feelings, adding that players have nothing to lose.
“We have another leg to try to reverse the steam and we will go for everything and try to win the tie and, finally, we will see where it takes us,” said Rogers.
“We didn’t want to come here [Paris] And just be spectators. We wanted to participate and try to compete and I felt that we did it for large games. Obviously, the score is not great, but we have another game and we will try to run it.
“We have the quality to reverse the steam.”
Morgan Rogers turns to the visit of PSG to Villa Park after the defeat tonight 🏟
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– Football on TNT SPORTS (@footballontnt) April 9, 2025
“We have quality in our locker room. We are here for a reason. We want to fight, we want to try to win and, in the end, we have enough quality to cause a team in global problems.
“We have nothing to lose. No one won us the draw in the first place, so why not go. This is the mentality I have, it is the mentality that we have all and the manager has.
“We must continue to continue and continue to believe that we can do it and see where it leads us. We certainly have the quality to overthrow the steam so that it is not yet done.”
The villa welcomes PSG to Villa Park Tuesday evening, with a kick-off at 8:00 p.m. in the United Kingdom.
