Wednesday’s briefing: Heartbreak for Villa while Bellingham eyes Real fightback

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