Aston Villa banking on home advantage against PSG, says Emery

Aston Villa must make their home advantage count in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park, so says Unai Emery.

Villa went down 3-1 in the first leg at the Parc des Princes, where Morgan Rogers gave them an unlikely lead in the 35th minute from a quick counter-attack.

But Champions League favourites PSG hit back strongly with fantastic goals from Desire Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes.

Villa’s defeat last week was the third time they have lost by two goals or more in the first leg of a knockout stage tie in major European competition.

They have failed to progress in each of the previous two instances (on aggregate: 1-5 v Royal Antwerp in 1975-76 in the UEFA Cup and 2-6 v Olympiakos last season in the Conference League).

But Emery was not forlorn ahead of Tuesday’s encounter.

The Spaniard acknowledged his former club’s quality, but was adamant the fans at Villa Park will have a huge role to play.

“PSG have a lot of experience playing in away matches,” Emery said on Monday.

“They are playing in France and Europe and we have experience as well.

“But we will be connecting with our supporters and transmitting the energy… 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.”

Villa beat Southampton 3-0 to strengthen their Premier League position over the weekend, and Emery is confident his team can test PSG.

He added: “Our expectation is to get a good result of the second leg. Of course the fact that they won 3-1 is changing something. But a lot? No. Why? Because we have to win.

“We had to win at 2-1 and with 3-1 now. But now, we have to win with one more goal.

“We played how we wanted to in Paris, but the result obviously wasn’t what we hoped for. If we are winning, we can be close.”

Unai’s talking points from this afternoon’s press conference #UCL

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Emery also suggested that Villa would stick to their game plan in the second leg despite some tactical struggles in Paris last week.

“Our objective is to play with one strong plan in our tactical way tomorrow and try to be consistent and try to understand how the match is going in 90 minutes,” he said.

When asked about striker Ollie Watkins – who has started just one of Villa’s last five matches – Emery was full of praise, highlighting his good form despite limited minutes.

“He showed us he is feeling fantastic. He is scoring goals. He played 30 minutes performing really well [against Southampton],” Emery said.

“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 tomorrow.”

Watkins leads the goalscoring charts for Villa with 15 goals in all competitions this season, though his last goal in the Champions League came in their final league stage game against Celtic in January.