Aston Villa suffered Champions League heartbreak after producing a stirring fightback against Paris St Germain on Tuesday while Barcelona survived a scare of their own to reach the semi-finals.
Arsenal will hope to cement their place in the last four on Wednesday as they take on Jude Bellingham’s Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium with a 3-0 aggregate lead to protect.
Villa fall short
The dream ended for Unai Emery’s side as they fell agonisingly short of pulling off one of the great comebacks in the second leg of their quarter-final against PSG.
The hosts looked dead and buried midway through the first half at Villa Park after goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the French champions up 2-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.
But a rousing response saw Villa hit back through Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa and get within a goal of taking the tie to extra time. Ultimately PSG prevailed 5-4 on aggregate despite a 3-2 loss.
Barca hang on
Barcelona held off a spirited comeback attempt from a Serhou Guirassy-inspired Borussia Dortmund to reach the last four for the first time in six years.
The Catalan giants, expected to ease through after winning last week’s first leg 4-0, were stunned as Guirassy scored a hat-trick at Signal Iduna Park to give the German side hope of an unlikely recovery.
Ultimately, Dortmund just had too much to do as Barca, boosted by an goal from Ramy Bensebaini, held on to progress 5-3 on aggregate after a 3-1 loss on the night.
Bellingham eyes fightback
England international Bellingham is confident Real can produce something special to overcome Arsenal.
The 15-time European champions have made a habit of impressive turnarounds in recent seasons and Bellingham has said the buzzword in the dressing room this week is “comeback”.
He said: “For some reason everyone thinks it’s nailed on that we’ll come back. It’s a nice feeling, I have to say. It’s something that you want to be a part of.”
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta, however, is not fazed.
He said: “We have the same mindset. The mindset is to win, to be brave, to be bold, dominant, to be determined and to have the conviction that we can be better than them and win the game.”
No timeframe for Howe return
Assistant boss Jason Tindall will remain in charge of the Newcastle team for an indefinite period as manager Eddie Howe continues his recovery from pneumonia.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s game against Crystal Palace, Tindall said: “There is no exact timeframe. He will only come back when he is ready to come back.”
What’s on today?
As well as Arsenal’s tie against Real Madrid, the other remaining Champions League quarter-final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich will be settled. Inter go into the clash at San Siro holding a 2-1 aggregate lead.
Newcastle have a chance to go third in the Premier League as they host Crystal Palace.
