The Champions League is considered the greatest club competition in the world due to its ability to create incredible narratives throughout history. Tomorrow, PSG and Aston Villa will face off for the first time… but they know each other very well. Especially because, in the English team’s squad, there are two ‘villains’ looking for personal revenge at the Parc des Princes.

The blow Emery couldn’t recover from

The first of them is Unai Emery, the first Spanish coach in PSG’s history until Luis Enrique arrived in the summer of 2023… and the absolute leader of an Aston Villa team he has helped return to Europe after taking over the project when they were close to relegation to the Championship. But, looking back, it’s almost been a decade since PSG took a chance on him to become Laurent Blanc’s successor on the bench at the Parc des Princes back in the summer of 2016 after his fantastic performance at Sevilla, where he won the Europa League three consecutive times.

In total, Unai Emery was the visible leader of the PSG project for two seasons and can boast about winning seven titles. A fairly positive performance that, however, was overshadowed by the painful elimination in the 2017 Champions League round of 16 against Barcelona after the 4-0 loss in the first leg. Still, the board showed confidence in his project, and the following summer, the signings of Neymar and Mbappé were made. But once again, he was eliminated in the round of 16 by Real Madrid… and he couldn’t recover.

Marco Asensio has resurrected at Aston Villa

The other ‘villain’ in question is Marco Asensio, who until a few months ago was part of the PSG squad before being loaned to Aston Villa in January. He arrived at the Parc des Princes in the summer of 2023 after his contract with PSG ended, as one of the key players for Luis Enrique’s rebuilding project, someone who knew him perfectly from their time together in Spain and always had full trust in him.

Despite the doubts about whether his loan contract to Aston Villa included the so-called 'fear clause', Marco Asensio will indeed be able to play against PSG... and Luis Enrique "is delighted" with that: "He wasn't getting the minutes he wanted here and had the opportunity to go to Birmingham. It's good that he's playing." Without a doubt, this is his moment to try to convince Luis Enrique that he can return to Paris for the upcoming season.