Aston Villa crashed out of the Champions League after losing the quarter-final tie 5-4 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain.
The Lions were looking to make a stunning comeback in the second leg following their 3-1 defeat in Paris last week.
The hosts started the game with real intent, but fell behind in the 10th minute when Achraf Hakimi netted from point-blank range after Emiliano Martinez parried Bradley Barcola’s cross straight to him.
Nuno Mendes added another to leave Villa needing to score at least four more goals. But Unai Emery’s men produced a magnificent response to spark hopes of a historic comeback.
Youri Tielemans restored parity with a deflected strike before John McGinn and Ezri Konsa scored in quick succession after half-time, but the Midlands outfit ultimately fell short due to Gianluigi Donnarumma’s excellence between the sticks.
Despite their Champions League exit, Villa’s epic fightback is being highly praised. But Emery’s decision to bring off Marcus Rashford has left many fans baffled, as the 27-year-old was having an excellent game. He brilliantly set up Konsa’s goal and also had four key passes to his name.
Former England defender Stephen Warnock slammed Emery for the decision, saying “he got it wrong.”
Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I don’t know what Unai Emery saw, with the way Marcus Rashford was playing, he got it wrong. Rashford was brilliant.
“Rashford was involved in everything and everything which was good was coming from him.
“It felt like the tempo dropped when he made that substitution. You need a goal – why are you taking a striker off?
“If you want to pin PSG back, you play Rashford and Watkins in between the full-back and centre-halves and you stretch those balls over the top.”
Aston Villa fans will be disappointed their team couldn’t make it to the Champions League semi-final, but they can take a lot of encouragement from their excellent performance on Tuesday.
The Lions did not give up when PSG were 5-1 ahead on aggregate, instead they launched a magnificent response to score three brilliant goals. If not for Donnarumma’s heroics in goal, they would have struck another to level the quarter-final tie.
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