Wayne Rooney sends surprise Man United message to Marcus Rashford after PSG knock out Aston Villa in the Champions League
Wayne Rooney singled out Marcus Rashford for special praise after Aston Villa’s win in vain against PSG and challenged the forward to replicate his excellent form back at Manchester United.
Villa had a mountain to climb, trailing 3-1 from the Champions League quarter-final first leg, and a pair of early goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes seemingly extinguished any hope of progression.
But Youri Tielemans and John McGinn struck either side of half-time to transform Villa Park into a cacophony of noise and Ezri Konsa’s composed 57th-minute effort almost took the roof off the stadium.
Marcus Rashford looked back to his frightening best across a magnificent second-half display and the Manchester United loanee provided the assist for Konsa with some sublime wing play down the right flank.
But while Rashford provided a constant threat, causing problems with his pace and trickery before being replaced in the 76th minute, the visitors managed to cling on without conceding a fourth, thanks largely to the goalkeeping heroics of an inspired Gianluigi Donnarumma.
PSG’s 3-2 defeat on the night was ultimately enough to send the French champions through and Rooney felt Unai Emery’s men will be ‘disappointed’ to come up short at the death.
‘How they came out for the second half was excellent. They came out with a belief and an energy, they felt like they had nothing to lose,’ the former Manchester United and England captain said on Amazon Prime’s coverage.
‘They will be proud with their performance but also really disappointed as well because the goals they conceded in the first half were really avoidable and that’s what cost them the tie.
‘The goals they conceded in the first half were sloppy and nowhere near good enough at this level.
‘That’s ultimately what has cost them.’
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