Aston Villa v PSG Post-Match Thread

[simon ward 50]

Proud of the team after last night!

My one observation would be that Watkins needed to come on earlier for either Onana or Kamara, to try and get the extra goal?

[Monty]

Just a word to say that 3 minutes at the end is utter shite, that they also got a ton of rather odd decisions, that PSG saved UEFA's and Ceferin's bacon over the Super League fiasco, and that's all I'll say about it.

We battered them. Liverpool got closer than we did by grinding out to penalties, but at no point did they have a spell like we did. They are the best team in Europe right now, and we beat the shit out of them. Fine, we're out, it's a shame, but we left our mark.

[VillaTim]

All about bouncing back now .

[Bosco81]

Proud of the team after last night!

My one observation would be that Watkins needed to come on earlier for either Onana or Kamara, to try and get the extra goal?

I thought we could have had 10/15 minutes of Rashford on the left and Watkins through the middle, but Unai seems reluctant to have them both on the pitch at the same time.

[walsall villain]

All about bouncing back now .

Cup defeats can often be deflating and affect league form, this doesn’t feel like that at all, plenty to look forward to!

[TonyD]

Great performance.
Would have won if McGinn stayed on. 

[olaftab]

All about bouncing back now .

But we won the game last night?

[olaftab]

Great performance.
Would have won if McGinn stayed on. 

I don't agree, he was knackered.

[VillaTim]

All about bouncing back now .

Cup defeats can often be deflating and affect league form, this doesn’t feel like that at all, plenty to look forward to!

More mental and physical fatigue . We have often been flat after Euro games . Hopefully Palace make a tough game of it tonight .

[Smithy]

All about bouncing back now .

But we won the game last night?

Our 9th win in 10 games.  It will hurt, and the players will be tired, but won the game and are still in excellent form, with a full squad to choose from!

[Brend'Watkins]

At 2-0 down on the night I thought the only thing we'd get out of the night was a level of football we should try to emulate for the future.  How wrong I was.  We more than matched them, put fear into them, bossed them and had them rattled. If they're being honest with themselves they'll look back on this night and think they were fortunate but over the two legs probably deserved it. 

I hope they go on and win the thing now as they are an exceptionally talented team.  Their fans though are a lot less exceptional. They're an AI Parody of a poor AI image of what football fans are supposed to be. They didn't create an atmosphere they created a din which had nothing to do with what was happening on the pitch. Those AI memes that have been doing the rounds over the last week depicting the PSG Bus in Birmingham on bricks and later with bags of rubbish all around proved more than ironic.     

[Somniloquism]

Hindsight and everything. I think the key change that disrupted the momentum slightly was moving Tielemans further back. We already had decent distribution from Torres further back and Tielemans was able to thread delicate passes through the defenders at the front. But I also feel they made some changes (Doue) after the third which also changed them with their team noticeably further back and hoping to play over the top to Doue and Dembele so I'm not sure if our changes or theirs took the sting out.

[VillaTim]

Rashford had them terrified , I think he should have stayed on.

[Keeno]

Hindsight and everything. I think the key change that disrupted the momentum slightly was moving Tielemans further back. We already had decent distribution from Torres further back and Tielemans was able to thread delicate passes through the defenders at the front. But I also feel they made some changes (Doue) after the third which also changed them with their team noticeably further back and hoping to play over the top to Doue and Dembele so I'm not sure if our changes or theirs took the sting out.

I think in fairness, they did very well to settle the game down for the final 20 minutes - the Doue sub was really important as you say and meant that we had to keep another player back to guard against the break.

We missed some chances but given the atmosphere and energy we were playing with (probably the highest level I've seen us reach under Unai), it's equally as impressive as their attacking skill in terms of how they managed to see the tie out - we'll need to channel some of that nous in the remaining games of this season.

I'd like them to go on to win it not only because it'd be nice to say we went toe-to-toe with the eventual winners and were victorious over 90 minutes, but also because as a team they're a breath of fresh air and the complete opposite of Arsenal/Madrid in terms of how they approach games.

So proud of the boys and Unai.

[PeterWithe]

Its difficult to be critical of such a gutsy performance but...I did mention to my companion that given we were playing with two holding/defensive midfielders, both goals were scored from positions where you'd want them to be.