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Stephen Warnock says Unai Emery made a big mistake in Aston Villa’s Champions League exit to PSG

Giuseppe Labellarte

Tue 15 April 2025 22:48, UK

Aston Villa came close to forcing Paris Saint-Germain to extra time in their Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash on Tuesday night.

However, Aston Villa sadly just fell short, despite coming back to within a goal of PSG after trailing 5-1 on aggregate at one point.

Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes scored in the opening half-hour before Youri Tielemans struck back a few minutes after Mendes’ goal.

Quickfire efforts from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa just before the hour mark put the Villans within a goal of levelling the tie.

However, Villa couldn’t quite find the goal that would’ve made it 5-5 and taken the Champions League tie to extra time.

BBC Sport pundit Stephen Warnock, speaking after the game, criticised Unai Emery for a decision he made during the match.

READ MORE: Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey names the Liverpool man he thinks has been the Premier League’s best player this season

Stephen Warnock feels Marcus Rashford should not have come off for Aston Villa against PSG

Warnock was not impressed with Emery’s decision to take Marcus Rashford off midway through the second half.

The former Villa defender said Emery “got it wrong” as the Manchester United loanee was doing so well on the night.

“I don’t know what Unai Emery saw, with the way Marcus Rashford was playing, he got it wrong,” Warnock said on .

“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.”

European football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I was delighted when I saw his number coming up on the board, but I didn’t understand it and I didn’t think it made sense.”

Some Villa fans also criticised Emery’s decision to take Rashford off.

How Marcus Rashford fared against PSG

Rashford began poorly for Villa, with one heavy touch helping provide the platform for PSG’s opener.

However, he grew into the game and made amends, beating two players to create the goal for Konsa which put Villa within a goal of sending the game to extra time.

Rashford also assisted Konsa later on for what should’ve been the equaliser in the tie, along with testing PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma with an great effort of his own.

Rashford has been impressing for Villa and it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for him once his loan spell at B6 ends.