TalkSPORT’s Tony Cascarino Believes Unai Emery Hurt Aston Villa Star With Decision Against PSG | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain secured a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa in the first leg at Parc des Princes on Wednesday, overcoming a 1-0 deficit with three unanswered goals.

While PSG showed their quality, some are questioning whether Unai Emery’s decisions played a role in allowing the Parisians to turn the game around. After Aston Villa took the lead, Desire Doue quickly responded with an equalizer, sending the teams into halftime level at 1-1.

Doue’s goal appeared to shift the momentum. Early in the second half, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia put PSG ahead 2-1.

It looked like the match would end with that scoreline, but Nuno Mendes added a late goal to give PSG a 3-1 cushion heading into the second leg. Still, one pundit remains puzzled by Unai Emery’s starting lineup choices.

Unai Emery is criticized for the decision to bench Ollie Watkins

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On Saturday, talkSPORT’s Tony Cascarino stated that he was surprised that Ollie Watkins didn’t get the start for Emery as the Spanish manager decided to go with Marcus Rashford.

“It’s very hard to criticize Unai Emery because he’s done such a fabulous job at Aston Villa. But I was very surprised in the lineup, and I didn’t get why Ollie Watkins was left out. He was the main man last year. He’s still their top goal scorer this year.”

“I mean, okay, he’s not played as well. But I felt if they had gone for a front three of Ollie Watkins, obviously Rashford, and you could probably point in as—since I didn’t get why he didn’t start as well—and Morgan Rogers behind and having two holding midfielders, I thought you’d have matched up to PSG.”

Cascarino added that deciding to bench Watkins in Aston Villa’s biggest game in 40 years might lead to his desire to leave this summer.

“They wanted him to stay, and then you’ve left him out in the biggest game for, what, 40 years. I’m not sure Ollie Watkins would be okay with that. I think it would have broken him a little bit, of like, ‘Okay, so the biggest game of the season, you’ve chose a guy that you brought in on loan in front of me.’ And yes, he might have been playing better, but I feel like Ollie would really feel like he should have played.”