PARIS (Reuters) -Paris St Germain's qualification for the Champions League semi-final against Aston Villa exposed some of the team's weaknesses, but also marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Luis Enrique's youthful side.
The 3-2 defeat at a raucous Villa Park was another reminder that PSG's collection of talented but inexperienced players still struggle under pressure, yet the Ligue 1 champions advanced 5-4 on aggregate.
Unlike previous years, when collapses defined their European campaigns, PSG showed resilience — bending, but not breaking, finding some form of control after squandering a 2-0 lead that Villa turned into a 3-2 advantage on Tuesday.
PSG had done the hard work in Paris, where a commanding 3-1 win gave them the upper hand in the quarter-final tie, with Nuno Mendes' late goal effectively proving to be a tie changer.
Yet on Tuesday, in the face of relentless pressure and a frenetic English crowd, the team showed familiar signs of nerves.
Misplaced passes, rash decisions, and an overall lack of control allowed Villa to sense blood.
"It wasn’t our best game, that’s clear," Luis Enrique said. "But what I saw was a team that suffered together. And that’s new."
For years, PSG’s Champions League story has been one of disappointment. The 2017 "remontada" against Barcelona, when they squandered a 4-0 first-leg lead, and the 2019 heartbreak against Manchester United, remain painful scars for the club.
On Tuesday, some of those same ghosts threatened to return as PSG lost the plot early in the second half despite having extended their aggregate lead thanks to first-half goals by Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes.
But instead of unravelling, PSG managed the game’s emotional weight. Gianluigi Donnarumma stood tall in goal with several world class saves that showed that a pinch of experience was paramount at that level.
"I've been through difficult moments so I'm going to savour this one," said captain Marquinhos, who was on the team who was humiliated at the Camp Nou in 2017.
"But we stayed together in the face of adversity. Now we need to improve because these kind of errors will not be permitted in the semi-finals."
PSG will take on either Arsenal or Real Madrid.
With an average age well under 25, PSG’s project under Luis Enrique has been focused on long-term growth rather than instant results and mid-season in 2023-24, the Spaniard said he was preparing the following term.
With big names gone, PSG allowed the emergence of homegrown talents, and composed performances under pressure like against Liverpool in the last 16, are signs of a changing mentality in Paris.
For the first time in years, PSG move forward not with swagger, but with scars — and perhaps, at last, with a little steel.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
