PSG accomplished mission despite Aston Villa defeat – Hakimi

Photo Credit - PSG - Paris Saint-Germain.

Morocco international Achraf Hakimi was happy that Paris Saint-Germain sealed their qualification to the semi-finals of the Champions League despite suffering a 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Tuesday night.

Dortmund having won the first leg 3-1 at home, Villa needed two goals at home to level the scores but it was PSG, who took the lead when Emiliano Martinez fumbled Bradley Barcola’s cross to the feet of a grateful Hakimi, who hammered the ball into the roof of the net.

Nuno Mendes finished off another speedy PSG counter, collecting Ousmane Dembele’s pass before crashing an effort in off the post to make it 2-0 and a mountain to climb for Villa.

However, Villa kept probing, and they soon gave their fans something to shout about when Youri Tielemans’ effort deflected off Pacho and sent Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way.

John McGinn strode forward and unleashed an absolute rocket to make it 2-2 for Villa before Marcus Rashford jinxed his way to the byline and cut the ball back for Ezri Konsa to steer into the bottom corner for the third goal.

“First of all, we're happy. Everyone should be happy, all the Parisians. We did what we needed to do. We didn't win but we qualified. That was the mission we came here to accomplish. We're happy about that. But we didn't want to suffer the way we did,” Hakimi told PSG website after the game.

“We need matches like that, matches where we suffer. In this competition there are no easy matches; today we suffered, but we knew how to do it. We have to keep working, there are still a lot of matches to come. We can't slow down.

“They show up every time. We thank the fans who came, they've supported us at every stage of the competition, in Paris too. We're glad to have them. We have to keep it up, and we thank them again.”

Hakimi and PSG will face either Real Madrid or Arsenal in the semi-finals.