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Emery confident Villa will return to the elite
Birmingham Mail
|April 17, 2025
VILLA manager Unai Emery has challenged his side to return to the Champions League next season after their dream ended against Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa fell agonisingly short of pulling off one of the great comebacks after they appeared dead and buried midway through the first half of their quarter-final second leg at Villa Park when goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the French champions up 2-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.
A rousing response saw Emery's men hit back through Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa to earn a 3-2 win on the night, but they fell to a 5-4 aggregate loss.
It ends a memorable campaign, with a famous league-stage win over Bayern Munich among many special nights, as Villa harboured hopes of repeating their 1982 European Cup triumph.
Their season is not over as they are in a fight to get back into this competition next season, with crunch games against Newcastle and Manchester City coming up in the next week, and then an FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace to look forward to.
This story is from the April 17, 2025 edition of Birmingham Mail.
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