Defiant Unai Emery insists ‘we believe in Villa Park’ and pledges more attacking plan for return leg after 3-1 PSG Champions League defeat
, updated
- Villa will need to overturn a two-goal deficit in the second leg next Tuesday
- Emery, however, backed his side to do so and revealed he may change approach
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Unai Emery has insisted he has not lost belief that Aston Villa can reach the Champions League semi-finals despite their 3-1 defeat in the first leg of their quarter-final tie with Paris Saint-Germain.
Underdogs Villa had been on cloud nine when they opened the scoring in the first half through Morgan Rogers, but were brought back down to earth when Desire Doue curled an effort into the top corner just minutes later.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia then made it 2-1, and, just when it looked as though Villa would go into the second leg just a goal down, Nuno Mendes doubled the lead for PSG in stoppage time.
PSG were already huge favourites to win the tie before kick-off, and will now be backed even heavier given they take a two-goal advantage into next week’s game.
But that’s not something that bothers Emery too much. Villa are strong at home, and haven’t lost at Villa Park since 18 games ago, a defeat which came in the Carabao Cup.
That is something that can play into their hands next week, Emery argued – as he suggested that he was not too concerned by the late goal.
‘More or less the expectation I had before the match happened,’ he told TNT Sports after the game. ‘[There is] not a lot of difference between 2 and 3-1 as we will play at home next week.
‘It will still be a huge challenge for us but we can feel strong at home with our supporters. We needed to be defensively strong, lower than normal, but even when we were losing we had a free approach.
‘[There were] two shots from Morgan [Rogers] and one of Marco Asensio, the last goal, OK, but our mind is not changing a lot because we have to win at home now.
Villa are often known for their high-line in terms of their defence, but had less than 25 per cent of the ball in Paris and and were forced to defend deep at times unnaturally.
PSG had 29 shots overall, but Villa themselves had seven, including some good opportunities. More will come, Emery insisted, in the second leg.
‘The first half we had three or four chances to get in the box,’ he continued. ‘We knew before the match we needed to be clinical as well. We were in the first half but not second, we tried to show our power.
‘PSG like to keep possession, but today we were more in a low block, at home maybe we can change. Hopefully we can get more moments to keep our momentum and possession.
‘We are going to try and combat the result. We believe in Villa Park and that our players can give the performances.’
