From club shop to Champions League: John McGinn tells quirky Paris Saint-Germain tale as Aston Villa head to quarter-finals

The French giants are the next opponents on Villa’s Champions League adventure, after a 6-1 aggregate win over Club Brugge set up a reunion for boss Unai Emery and defender Lucas Digne with their former club.

New fan favourite Marco Asensio, meanwhile, will face his parent club in next month’s quarter-final tie.

McGinn’s previous experience of PSG extends only so far as a brief stop at the Parc des Princes while on a childhood holiday to Euro Disney.

"The only place I've been there is the shop!” smiled the Villa skipper. “I’ve not managed them or played for them.

"I think I was about seven or eight. We went to France on holiday, all my family. We were in a big campervan I remember and stopped off on the way to Disneyland.

"I remember getting a PSG strip. That was as close as I thought I would ever get to playing against them. So it’s strange!

“But I think for Marco it'll be odd and probably the manager as well, having managed them.

“Lucas played there as well, so they’ve all got a point to prove hopefully. We’re lucky to have them in claret and blue.”

Never mind Disneyland, McGinn might be forgiven for thinking he is in some sort of dreamland after where his Villa career has gone since 2018.

The club’s longest-serving current player joined just a couple of weeks after the takeover by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens rescued the club from imminent administration.

Villa were then in the Championship but there has followed promotion, a remarkable escape from relegation and now the sensational rise under Unai Emery, of which reaching the last-eight of the Champions League is the latest significant milestone.

"It's surreal,” said McGinn. "I think you don't get the time to reflect when you're playing, but me and Tyrone Mings had a laugh about it. 

"We were part of a roller-coaster season in which we ended up getting promoted. I think of players, the staff members that have been here a long time and the supporters who were with us through thick and thin - Millwall away getting hammered, Wigan away getting hammered. 

“Now they've got a trip to Paris to look forward to in the last-eight of the Champions League.

“It's amazing. But we need to take stock, go there and compete and it's a game we're really looking forward to.”  

Villa head to Paris for the first leg on Wednesday, April 9, before hosting the return the following Tuesday.

PSG are now being tipped among the favourites to win the competition after knocking out Liverpool, with Villa clear outsiders but the underdog tag is something McGinn is happy to accept.

He said: “I think no matter who we got, whether it was PSG or Liverpool, we're going into the game as underdogs. 

“What I did see (on Tuesday) was two world-class teams, explosive, full of pace, strength, power. 

“But what we've shown over the years, especially here at Villa Park, is that we can compete against the best in the world, whether that's Man City in full flow, Liverpool in full flow. 

“I think PSG have got a lot in their armoury which can hurt us, but what we have is a lot in ours that can hurt them. It's going to be a tighter game than a lot of people realise and we'll certainly give everything we have to get through.”

McGinn added: "For us players, we've got to work. But I'm sure all the supporters, whether they get the ferry, get in their cars, there'll be plenty of Aston Villa fans over there. 

“We all deserve it. Why not dare to dream? We can carry this journey on. You never, never know. Stranger things have happened. 

“We know we're capable of playing against the best, competing against the best and I'm sure every team that comes up against us will know they're in for a game.”