Unai Emery opts for Marcus Rashford over Ollie Watkins in CL second leg starting XI | OneFootball

Unai Emery is going to attempt to achieve history with Aston Villa. This has been the message throughout the week in preparation for the second leg of the Champions League against PSG. Being able to play with a 'starting 22' leaves a lot of possibilities for the Spaniard in each matchup.

The Villa boss has elected to go with Marcus Rashford up top, in place of Ollie Watkins. Despite the latter scoring a fabulous goal over the weekend, Emery is sticking with the former in the starting XI. What's known is that Watkins can make a huge impact off the bench, as is the case for many of the potential substitute options.

The attacker has made his stance clear on being frustrated with being excluded from the opening whistle. Depending on how the game plays out, however, he'll be able to further channel that energy into a productive day for AVFC.

Rounding out the remaining players, Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana, Youri Tielemans, John McGinn, and Boubacar Kamara will need to control the park and work past an excellent pressing side in PSG. Marco Asensio could potentially feel hard done by, not being afforded the opportunity to exact revenge against his parent club. Emery's selection points to the AVFC manager wanting to put his most industrious lineup out on the pitch from the opening whistle.

Back four and keeper for Aston Villa

The back four in front of Emiliano Martínez will feature Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, and Lucas Digne. Knowing Villa will need to open up, this group in particular will need to step up from the prior Paris outing.

This is in the sense that Emery will open things up, and the defenders and keeper will not have the same midfield cover that they were afforded in the first leg. The outside backs in particular will be asked to not accumulate too many fouls while keeping the PSG attackers at bay.

Emery has proven his ability to make changes throughout the season and within games. Every time a starting 11 is revealed, the announced lineup is met with a lot of criticism. For those voices and those who feel this Aston Villa side was exposed in the French capital, this group has a chance to show otherwise.