Marcus Rashford’s brilliance goes begging as Aston Villa crash out of the Champions League | OneFootball

Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford dazzled as Aston Villa threatened to pull off a stunning comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their quarter-final tie at Villa Park.

Rashford and his teammates went into the game with the aim of overturning a 3-1 deficit to book their place in the semi-final of the Champions League, but they suffered a setback after going two goals down inside the first 30 minutes.

Bradley Barcola found himself with space down the left and delivered a low cross to try and find Ousmane Dembele in the middle. Emi Martinez got down and got a hand on the ball but could only parry it into the path of Achraf Hakimi, who swept it into the top corner.

Nuno Mendes doubled PSG’s advantage, brilliantly finishing off another counter. It looked like the hosts were done and dusted but they pulled one back through Youri Tielemans, after some good work between himself, Rashford and John McGinn.

Villa came out firing after the restart and they got their reward 10 minutes later, through McGinn, who was allowed to power through the PSG midfield before firing a long-range effort that rose before dipping into the top-right corner and caught Gianluigi Donnarumma wrong-footed. Unai Emery’s side launched another attack soon after, as Rashford drifted in from the left and dispatched a powerful shot towards the corner but he was denied by Donnarumma, who produced a top save.

It didn’t take long for Villa to get their third of the evening and Rashford’s fingerprints were all over it. The United loanee provided an assist for Ezri Konsa’s goal by dancing around a stacked PSG defence down the right before he pulled the ball back to the defender, who planted it into the bottom right.

Rashford nearly fashioned a fourth goal for Villa, putting in a dangerous cross inside the box from a corner-kick routine but Konsa could not make contact with the ball. Villa had other chances, but the likes of Marco Asensio and Tielemans could not hit the target.

Rashford was on the pitch for 76 minutes before he was taken off and replaced by Ollie Watkins. On yet another occasion, Emery elected to have Rashford lead the line ahead of Watkins.

In addition to the assist, the Carrington academy graduate fired two shots, both of which were on target and forced the PSG goalkeeper to swing into immediate action.

The forward completed four of the nine dribbles he embarked on and missed one big chance.

He touched the ball 42 times and successfully found his teammates with 11 of the 15 passes he attempted (73% pass accuracy). Four of Rashford’s passes were key passes.

The 27-year-old connected with six of the nine crosses he aimed and created two big chances. He was decent defensively, winning five of the 10 ground duels he delved into and one of the two aerial challenges he vied for. The England international put in one tackle.

(Stats obtained from Sofascore)

Against PSG, Rashford created more chances (4), completed more dribbles (4) and created more big chances (2) than any other player on the pitch.

No player on the pitch registered more assists (1) than Rashford vs. PSG.

It was a brilliant display from the United man, who unfortunately, was on the losing side. Villa are back in action on Saturday when they host Newcastle.

Feature image Dan Istitene via Getty Images

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