1 week Ago By Darren Looney, HITC
Aston Villa’s trip to the Parc des Princes was always going to be a tough one for the Premier League side. Unai Emery’s men travelled to Paris on Wednesday night to play PSG in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with the Parisians’ two performances against Liverpool fresh in the heads of everyone associated with English football. Aston Villa would fall to a 3-1 defeat against the Ligue 1 champions, setting up a potential night to remember in Birmingham next week should the English side find a way to turn the tie around.
There have been many stories associated with this tie already, from Marco Asencio’s return to PSG to Emery and Luis Enrique going head-to-head again after their famous La Ramontada contest back in 2017. However, one story had everyone talking pre-match as Emi Martinez taunted the people of France and PSG supporters on his way to Paris. French media react to Emi Martinez’s PSG visit Martinez is regarded by many as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but it was a tough night for the Argentina star as he saw three goals fly past him in impressive fashion, which the French media decided to pounce upon.
Recapping the events of the World Cup winner’s night, Foot Mercato stated that the Villa goalkeeper experienced hell in Paris on Wednesday. “This evening couldn’t go well for Martinez, who dropped to his knees three times,” the French outlet reported. And each time, he could only admire the Parisians’ masterpieces.
“It started with a marvelous strike from Désiré Doué. The former Rennes player placed a ball under the bar of a beaten and helpless Martinez. The Aston Villa goalkeeper also felt this helplessness when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia decided to make the English defense dance and sent a shot under the bar.
“Finally, to top it all off, the 32-year-old goalkeeper fell for Nuno Mendes’s late feint, while Hakimi had also scored a goal that forced the Argentinian into a mistake (which was ultimately flagged for offside). A complicated evening for him, one he would undoubtedly have liked to avoid. “With attackers on fire and a hostile crowd, in short, the former Arsenal player experienced hell that he’ll want to quickly put behind him as he looks ahead to the return match.
” RMC Sport focused on the hostile reception Martinez received pre-match, writing: “French football is facing one of its greatest enemies. “During the warm-up, the Aston Villa goalkeeper was once again targeted. He was roundly booed as he came onto the pitch and was the target of further insults.
” This was also the angle Le Parisien took as the French outlet pointed out the insults Martinez would receive from the PSG fans. “Unsurprisingly, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez , wearing Argentina’s jersey, was booed as soon as he walked onto the pitch, while thousands of red and blue flags were waving all over the Parc des Princes,” Le Parisien wrote. “And the whistles were so insistent that they apparently led him to make a mistake on one of his first passes.
“Heavily insulted, too, he resisted for a long time and repelled the on-target attempts of Vitinha (5th) and Ousmane Dembélé (8th) but he ended up being beaten by Désiré Doué” Although Martinez did his job for the most part, Emery will be hoping the Argentine bounces back next week as Aston Villa need to find a way to advance to the semi-finals. Unai Emery hoping for his players to be ‘stronger’ at Villa Park Emery has a way about him when it comes to European nights and will be hoping to draw up another masterplan for his Aston Villa team to overcome PSG next week. The Spanish coach would have been disappointed with the late goal his team conceded, but insists that it doesn’t change much.
“It is not changing a lot because at 2-1 we were thinking, in the next match, we have to play to win,” Emery stated after the PSG match via The Guardian . “With 3-1, it is still the same. We need to win the next match, and not only [score] one goal but [at least] two.
“We were close to getting a good result. At the end with this goal it is still more or less the same because we still need to win next week. “Villa Park is our home and hopefully we can be stronger and win more of our duels.
They showed their power and individual qualities. The result is not the best but it’s not the worst. There are still 90 minutes to play, a second leg, and maybe extra time.
” This article first appeared on HITC and was syndicated with permission..
