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PSG came into the second leg at Villa Park with a 3-1 lead on aggregate, and the visitor picked up right where they left off last week, with Achraf Hakimi marauding forward to net the opener.

The tie looked all but sealed when Nuno Mendes doubled PSG’s advantage, though Youri Tielemans teased a comeback with a goal just past the half-hour mark.

A tense second half ensued, with John McGinn’s long-range strike keeping Villa’s hopes up. Two minutes later, Marcus Rashford brilliantly set up Ezri Konsa to put the hosts ahead on the night and within touching distance on aggregate.

But it wasn’t to be for Unai Emery’s side as PSG held on to sneak through, though it was hardly a comfortable night for the Parisians.

Luis Enrique was quick to praise his side, as well Aston Villa for their strong performance, though he asserted that PSG deserved to progress to the semi-finals.

“We started the game in a great way, scoring two amazing goals, trying to take advantage of the spaces," he said.

“We cannot forget, this is the Champions League and the other team has a lot of quality. And Aston Villa played with a lot of intensity.

“But from the whole two matches, we deserved to win.

“I am very happy because I can offer our supporters another qualification to the semi-final.”

Villa was far and away the better side in the second leg, pushing PSG’s defence to allow nine shots on target – the most it has conceded in a single match in the Champions League this season.

Luis Enrique was quick to commend his squad as well for its defensive resilience and impressively-growing record in this competition.

"The second year in a row in the [Champions League] semi-finals and now we want to go into the next phase,” the Spaniard added.

"I think have the best squad in the world, not only the best goalkeeper.

"When you are in a club like PSG, you have a lot of quality players. That's football and that's competition."

When asked if he was nervous about his side being 2-0 down on the night, the former Barcelona treble-winning manager offered a measured response.

"At that point, they didn't have anything to lose because they lost the first match and were losing at halftime in the first half [of the second leg]."

He added that the fans at Villa Park made the night memorable: "The atmosphere in the stadium was also very nice." 

PSG captain Marquinhos echoed his manager’s sentiments about wanting to push forward in the next stages of the competition.

"We knew it was going to be a difficult game. We had belief, we kept our intensity, and we believed until the end we were going to go through,” the Brazilian said.

"It is such a difficult competition, but we are getting better and better and we are proving we are good team.

"There is belief that we can go all the way and win it this year.

PSG has progressed from each of its last four quarter-final ties in the Champions League, reaching the final four for a fifth time – having also done it in 1994-95, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2023-24.

This is the fourth time in the last six seasons that the Parisians will feature in the semi-finals.

They will face one of Real Madrid or Arsenal, who battle out their quarter-final second leg on Thursday at the Santiago Bernabeu.