Aston Villa boss Unai Emery says his players should view the second leg of their Champions League showdown with Paris St-Germain as a chance to write themselves into the club’s history books.
Villa, who won the European Cup in 1982, suffered a 3-1 defeat away to the Ligue 1 champions last week in the first leg of their quarter-final tie.
Emery acknowledged his side will have to “manage” the match at Villa Park on Tuesday “emotionally and tactically”.
But the Spaniard also said his players have to “believe” they can overturn a two-goal deficit and progress to the semi-finals.
“I have experiences coming back, results positively and negatively, in two ways. But now is something different,” Emery said.
“We want to write here the history of Aston Villa. Last year, in Conference League [when they lost in the last four], and this year in Champions League, and hopefully for a long time in Europe.”
Emery, 53, has only lost one of his 13 home matches in major European competitions as Villa boss, winning 11 of those.
Villa are also on a 17-match unbeaten run on home turf in all competitions, stretching back to November 2024.
Emery is hoping to pair Marcus Rashford and Ollie Watkins in attack in the future, but said the game against PSG might not be the right time to deploy them together.
Rashford and Watkins have played in seven games together with the most time the pair have spent on the pitch with each other the 82 minutes during Villa’s 2-0 win over Cardiff City in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
“The next step – if I have time – is to play them together,” Emery added.
“We did with Rashford playing left side, but now we are choosing more with both playing as strikers. That’s the next step. I want to practise, I want to test,t but not now, with enough time.”
Villa fans can have ‘massive’ impact
Villa attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers said the club’s fans have a vital role to play in generating an atmosphere to inspire the club to the semi-finals of Europe’s elite competition for the first time in over four decades.
When asked how important the home support at Villa Park will be, Morgan said: “Massive. Two-legged ties, that’s the whole purpose of it.
“You get your advantage at home, especially in the position we’re in, the second leg being at home. I think that’s massive for us.
“We can create a real atmosphere, we’ve done it this season in the big games, not just Champions League but in the big league games as well.”
Emery added: “If we are connecting with our supporters, if we are transmitting positive energy, if we are playing more or less, getting tactically and individually good things on the field, the supporters, they are going to help us a lot with their energy.
“They are going to transmit to us their energy, and always for our players playing at home, with the energy they can receive from our supporters, it’s something that adds positively. We need to use Villa Park now like our home and like our fortress.”
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