PSG is just 90 minutes away—barring extra time—from returning to the Champions League semifinals for the second consecutive season since Luis Enrique took over the project. A feat that, until now, no one had achieved. However, tonight’s match at Villa Park stands as a crucial game in which PSG needs to heal its deepest wound in the Champions League.

Luis Enrique knows what he’s talking about

After falling behind in the first leg against Aston Villa due to a goal by Morgan Rogers, PSG didn’t settle and managed to turn the game around in the second half… and their effort was rewarded with a last-minute goal by Nuno Mendes. However, despite their dominance on the field and the solid lead they gained, Luis Enrique insisted that the job was far from finished.

“The 3-1 win doesn’t change how we’ll play the second leg. We’re going to Villa Park to win. The best way to protect our lead is to attack, attack, and win the match. We don’t know how to play any other way. We will always keep attacking.” Luis Enrique knows what he’s talking about—he witnessed firsthand PSG’s darkest night in the Champions League… except for the final lost against Bayern in 2020.

PSG Must Prove Its Mentality Shift to Europe

Let’s go back to the round of 16 in the 2016/2017 Champions League season, when PSG convincingly beat FC Barcelona, then coached by Luis Enrique, at the Parc des Princes, only to fall victim three weeks later to the greatest comeback in Champions League history. Tonight, Aston Villa’s bench will be occupied by Unai Emery, the coach who led PSG on that infamous night at the Camp Nou.

Since then, PSG has come close to lifting its first Champions League title… but has also suffered painful defeats along the way, like the one in 2022 against Real Madrid after winning the first leg. This is a very different PSG team, with only two players (Marquinhos and Kimpembe) remaining from the squad that hit rock bottom in Barcelona. Therefore, as Luis Enrique well knows, tonight is not a night for PSG to play it safe — it's a night to close the wound once and for all in a hellish place like Villa Park… and to prove to Europe that their mentality is completely different now.