Aston Villa threatened to pull off a stunning comeback against Paris St-Germain before going out of the Champions League on a dramatic night at Villa Park.
Villa were attempting to overturn a 3-1 deficit to reach the semi-final but their hopes looked in tatters when they were two goals down inside the first half-hour
Achraf Hakimi cashed in on Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez’s mistake to put PSG ahead, then Nuno Mendes doubled the French side’s lead to leave Villa needing to score at least four goals.
In a thunderous Villa Park atmosphere, Unai Emery’s team refused to yield and launched a magnificent response to put this hugely talented PSG side on the rack.
Youri Tielemans pulled one back after 34 minutes with a deflected shot before a second half of pure theatre unfolded in front a frenzied Villa Park.
Villa struck twice in two minutes to spark hopes of a remarkable revival, John McGinn scoring from 20 yards after 55 minutes before defender Ezri Konsa put them ahead on the night after fantastic work by Marcus Rashford.
And, as Villa’s belief grew, it took three crucial saves from PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to stop them drawing level in the tie.
He dived high to his left to magnificently claw away Rashford’s rising drive, then somehow turned out Tielemans’ header before saving at the feet of substitute Marco Asensio.
PSG managed to regain a measure of composure to hold on and will meet Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund couldn’t recover from a first-leg demolition by Barcelona to reach the Champions League semi-finals, despite winning a thrilling return tie thanks to a Serhou Guirassy hat-trick.
The Catalan giants appeared to have all-but confirmed their place in the last four for the first time since 2019 following their crushing 4-0 win at home.
But Dortmund put up a brave effort to come so close to a stunning turnaround in a dramatic second leg.
They planted a seed of doubt in Barca’s minds when Guirassy cheekily chipped a ‘Panenka’ penalty over Wojciech Szczesny in the 11th minute after the Polish keeper had brought down Pascal Gross.
The Guinea striker then halved the deficit four minutes after the break, but Dortmund’s dreams looked to have been dashed when Ramy Bensebaini sliced into his own goal just five minutes later to give the Spanish side a three-goal lead on aggregate.
After an enormous effort, where they created and missed a host of chances and had a Gross goal ruled out for offside, it seemed like the energy had drained from the hosts before Guirassy gave them late hope and a fighting chance.
He completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute by smashing a poor clearance into the roof of the Barcelona net.
Substitute Julian Brandt then broke clear to rifle past Szczesny, but his side’s celebrations were cut short by an offside flag.
It was a fabulous fightback, but Barcelona held on to reach the semis of the competition for the first time since they let slip a three-goal lead in Liverpool’s famous second-leg comeback at Anfield six years ago.
They will face either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich, with the Italian side taking a 2-1 lead back to the San Siro for Wednesday’s second leg.