UEFA furious with Aston Villa for incident v PSG – ‘I’ve been made aware’
Aston Villa are in UEFA’s bad books after their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night.
Although Unai Emery’s men were 3-2 victors on the night in Birmingham, their first-leg defeat in France meant they were beaten 5-4 across two legs, with PSG progressing to play either Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semi-finals later this month.
It was no doubt a spirited performance by Aston Villa, who came from being two goals behind at Villa Park through Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.
However, it wasn’t to be for the Villans, who’ll now have their sights firmly set on playing Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday.
Aston Villa in UEFA blunder before kick-off v PSG
Morgan Rogers and co looked bemused before kick-off at Villa Park when the stadium’s speakers played the anthem of the Europa League.
One of the most magical parts of playing in the Champions League is standing out on the pitch with your teammates listening to one of the most instantly recognisable songs in the world of sport.
However, a behind-the-scenes mix-up at Villa meant that the Europa League music was played and former Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes it’ll be looked upon dimly by UEFA.
“I’ve been made aware that Aston Villa made an error with the anthem for the Champions League game this evening,” Hackett told Villa News.
“UEFA won’t be happy.”
Aston Villa stars robbed of final Champions League buzz
It might seem like a minor issue in the grand scheme of things but it’s really sloppy from Aston Villa to play the Europa League song ahead of kick-off against PSG.
It might not be the club’s fault, it could have been audio sent to them by UEFA to play on their public address system before kick-off.
Either way, someone has made a mistake somewhere and that’s led to Villa’s players being robbed of that final buzz of listening to the Champions League anthem before they were knocked out of the competition by PSG.