A late, late goal from Nuno Mendes in the first leg at the Parc des Princes gave the Ligue 1 champions some breathing space in the tie (3-1), but there were certainly enough positives for the home side to focus on before the whistle was blown to start Tuesday night's game.
Indeed, since the start of the 2022/23 season, Emery had only lost one of his 13 home matches in major European competition as a manager, while winning 11 of them (D1). His only defeat in this run came in May 2024 against Olympiacos (2-4 in the Conference League semi-final, first leg).
In fact, Villa had remained unbeaten in their last 17 games across all competitions at Villa Park (W11 D6), since a 1-2 League Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in October last year, and had won eight of their last nine games across all competitions (the only exception being the 3-1 defeat to PSG in the first leg).
The Parisiens only winning four of their 17 away games against English teams in European competition (D4 L9) was likely to have also been in the backs of Villa's minds.
Villa fans in full voice despite first-leg deficit
To that end, the cacophony of sound that greeted the players as they emerged from the tunnel at Villa Park will have told them that every home fan in the stadium still believed that qualification to the semi-finals was possible.
Unfortunately for the supporters and for Villa, the tie appeared over as a contest as early as the 11th minute, when Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring for PSG to make it 4-1 on aggregate.
The strike meant that the full-back had had a hand in more Champions League goals than any other defender this season (seven - two goals, five assists) and the writing was seemingly already on the wall at that point for the hosts given that PSG held a record of W6, D0, L1 when scoring the opening goal in the 2024/2025 UCL.
Mendes added to the scoreline before the half hour with the 13th goal that PSG have managed in this season's Champions League, and only bettered by Barcelona and Arsenal (both 15).
It was also just the third time in the competition this season that two defenders had scored for the same team in the same game (Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk for Liverpool vs Milan and Antonio Rudiger and Lucas Vazquez for Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund being the others).
The silence that greeted that second PSG goal told its own story from a Villa perspective too.
Youri Tielemans gave the hosts some hope after pulling one back with his second UCL goal this season before the break, Villa having 22 touches in the opposition's box in the first half, which was their most in the opening 45 minutes of a Champions League match this season.
It was clear from the positive way that the hosts continued to approach the game that they hadn't entirely given up on the chance of providing a major upset in the competition, so when John McGinn levelled not long after the break, the roof came off Villa Park.
It was the midfielder's third goal in the UCL, and only Kenny Miller has scored more in the competition amongst Scottish players.
Aston Villa should still be proud of their achievements
Ezri Konsa scored his first goal in the competition just two minutes later to put the Villans within touching distance of pulling off the most unexpected of results, his goal meaning Aston Villa had scored seven in the first 15 minutes of a second half, with only Real Madrid (nine) and Barcelona (eight) having a better record in that respect in the 24/25 Champions League.
Another assist for Marcus Rashford (for Konsa) gave him a fifth in all competitions since his Villa debut, more than any other Premier League player during that time, suggesting he's on the way back to his best in terms of form and output - which can only be good news for England and whichever club gets to sign him permanently this summer.
Ultimately PSG held out for the win on aggregate, Gianluigi Donnarumma having to make five saves in the game to help ensure their progression, though the loss on the night was their first after leading at half time in the Champions League since 9th March 2022 against Real Madrid (10 games without defeat since then).
Despite being knocked out, Villa can still be proud of their achievements; eight wins from 12 games (D1 L3) in what was their debut UCL campaign.
To put their win over PSG into more perspective, the Ligue 1 side failed to win a UCL game despite leading by 2+ goals for the first time since March 2001 (a 4-3 loss vs Deportivo de La Coruna), having won 56 successive such matches prior to Tuesday night's game.
Villa had more shots, including those on target and from inside the box, and more touches in the opposition's penalty area (39 to 23), as well as having more total dribbles (28 to 21). 56.3% of those dribbles were successful which clearly trumps PSG's 28.6%.
However, a poor pass accuracy across the board - Villa had just 76.7% success compared to their opponent's 88.2% - and the fact that PSG's 611 passes were more than double the hosts 301, is what finally stopped the Premier League side from adding another goal to level the tie, and helped PSG to take the game away from them.
