Aston Villa boss Unai Emery wants his side to “write history” by producing an epic comeback against Paris Saint-Germain to reach the Champions League semi-finals – but he will not use his own European knockout pedigree to motivate them.
Villa have a mountain to climb in Tuesday’s quarter-final second leg at Villa Park as they trail 3-1 from last Wednesday’s first match in France. However, coming back from a two-goal deficit is not an impossible task with teams doing so to progress 14 times.
Emery’s side looked like returning to home soil with just a one-goal deficit but Nuno Mendes’ stoppage-time effort at the Parc des Princes proved damaging.
The odds are against Villa in their debut season in the Champions League but Emery knows all about European comebacks, famously being the PSG manager when they squandered a 4-0 first-leg lead to lose to Barcelona in 2017.
And he wants his side to create their own story.
“I have experiences, positively and negatively – in two ways,” Emery said of his comeback history.
“Now we have something different – we want to write history here with Aston Villa.
“My experiences are different. Sometimes we lost away and then won at home, sometimes we lost at home and won away. Sometimes more winning than losing, but I also have some negative experiences.
“I’m not going to remind the players of those experiences, every word with the players inside to send messages is how we are doing this way, how we are getting our own experiences here.
“With the combination we have: mentally, individually and tactically, being so demanding in our process to get opportunities and believing, we can beat PSG.”
Asked if the third goal PSG scored in the first leg gave his team too much to do, Emery said: “2-1 and 3-1 changes something. A lot? No.
“Why? Because we have to win at 2-1 and we have to win at 3-1. Now we have to win with one more goal in our expectation.
“Tactically we are trying to do our best with our experiences, individual and collective idea to face them.
“We have to believe and show in a way our wishes but also respecting them in the same way we did there.
“But at the same time, trying to use Villa Park as our home and our fortress. We have felt it lots of times, we want to share a motivated match to play.”
Emery: Home support can help us through vs PSG
Emery also believes Villa’s home support will be crucial if they are to find a way back into the tie against PSG.
“PSG have a lot of experience playing in away matches,” he said. “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.”
‘If anyone can turn it around, it’s us’
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Paul Merson said Aston Villa’s hopes of progressing past the Champions League quarter-finals is not done and dusted but PSG’s third goal was big
Morgan Rogers, who put Villa 1-0 up in Paris last week, says his side believe they can produce the comeback.
“There’s massive belief in the dressing room,” Rogers said. “I know most people wrote us off before this tie. But in the first leg, we gave a good account of ourselves.
“Of course, there are things that we needed to improve on but we know [PSG] now. There is a task on our hands.
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Merse could not hide his excitement as Morgan Rogers put Aston Villa ahead in Paris
“Under the lights at home in the quarter-finals of this competition, there’s not many better places to be.
“It anyone is going to turn it around, it is going to be us. It’s down to us and we are excited for that challenge.
“It’s going to be difficult and I am not saying that we are going to do it, but we will definitely give it a shot and go out there to win.”
‘Watkins is feeling fantastic’
Ollie Watkins celebrates Villa’s opener at Southampton
A big talking point from Emery’s press conference was around who might start up front for Villa.
Ollie Watkins has admitted he is not happy on the Aston Villa bench, with the England striker, who has been managing a knee problem, starting just four of Villa’s last five matches as a substitute.
However, his sparkling 25-minute cameo against Southampton at the weekend may well have persuaded boss Emery to pick him for the make-or-break Champions League second leg against PSG.
“He showed us he is feeling fantastic,” Emery said. “He is scoring goals, He played 30 minutes performing really well [against Southampton].
“This is the variety we have with our players. We have to try to use their quality to help the team – be it 30 minutes, 10 minutes or five minutes. That is the mentality we need.”
Marcus Rashford has started Villa’s last two games in the No 9 position and Emery hinted he wants to pair him with Watkins in the future.
He added: “The next step – if I have time – is to play them together.
“We did with Rashford playing left side but now we are choosing more with both playing as strikers. That’s the next step. I want to practise, I want to test but not now, with enough time.”
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Southampton’s match against Aston Villa in the Premier League
Rashford or Watkins – who should Villa start?
Sky Sports News’ Danyal Khan at the Aston Villa training ground:
“After hearing from Morgan Rogers and Unai Emery in their news conferences I would describe them as business-like.
“Both exuded absolute belief that Villa can overturn the two-goal deficit – Rogers especially told me he feels people had written his side off even before a ball was kicked in Paris.
“But now they’ve played them and had that experience – they’re ready to go at them with everything they have at Villa Park.
“An interesting aspect from Emery’s chat was how he really does see Marcus Rashford as a No 9 in this Villa side – so that brings up a key selection dilemma: who starts?
“Ollie Watkins after his fantastic goal at Southampton on the weekend or will Rashford continue? He does have previous for winners and comebacks against PSG…”