Aston Villa skipper John McGinn targets special finish after 'pain and pride' of Champions League exit

Villa came close to pulling off one of European football’s greatest-ever comebacks after roaring back from 5-1 down on aggregate in the quarter-final tie.

Goals from Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa and McGinn himself brought Unai Emery’s team back within a goal of the visitors but they were unable to find the leveller which would have brought extra-time.

McGinn admitted his post-match emotions were a mixture of pain and pride but his focus quickly turned to the challenge of getting back into the Champions League next season.

Villa sit seventh in the Premier League, one point outside the top-five with huge matches to come against rivals Newcastle on Saturday and Manchester City next Tuesday.

McGinn told VillaTV: “Next year we want more. Nights like this are what this club deserve and we showed tonight we can compete at this level, so we want more. 

“We have a big challenge to come toward the end of the season but if we play like that, we will give ourselves a chance to do something special.”

Villa, trailing 3-1 from the first leg in Paris, looked to be out of the tie completely when Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes extended the visiting team’s advantage inside the opening 27 minutes of the second leg.

Yet Villa refused to lie down and it required a series of superb saves from PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to prevent them levelling the scores on aggregate in the second half.

McGinn continued: “When we went 2-0 down, 5-1 down in the tie, you are thinking: ‘This could get messy’.

“You have a choice, do you retreat and let them score more goals, let them attack you. Or do you puff your chest out and give it everything you’ve got. Every single player that started or came on gave everything.

“It was a risk, to play the way we played. It is not normal. We like to play with a lot more control. 

“They play with a lot of speed on the counter, which showed when they scored with their first two attacks. 

“But we got the goal, via a deflection, maybe we were a bit lucky but we had chances. We put them under a lot of pressure. 

“The manager said on Monday we needed to make them suffer and they will go home tonight knowing they have suffered a lot and they were in a game.

“We had a choice and all of us to a man showed huge character. 

“We don’t want to be proud of going out of the competition. We don’t want to be proud of losing over two legs. But I think if you look at each guy in the dressing room we are proud of what we did tonight.”