.jpeg?width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "Can Marco Asensio play for Aston Villa against PSG in the Champions League? – UK Times")
Aston Villa are set to face Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the Champions League – putting Unai Emery up against his former side and Marco Asensio against his parent club.
Asensio, a three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, joined Aston Villa in January on loan from PSG and the Spain international has made an excellent start to life in England with six goals – including in both legs against Club Brugge in the last-16.
Asensio has ensured Villa are in a commanding position against the Belgian side and are now set to face French champions PSG in the last eight, after Luis Enrique’s team stunned Liverpool on penalties at Anfield on Wednesday night.
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The good news for Villa fans is that Asensio would be eligible to play against PSG in the quarter-finals, even though he has already appeared for them in this season’s competition, as Uefa’s regulations are different to Premier League rules.
Marcus Rashford will be ineligible to face Manchester United in May, for example, while another loan signing, Axel Disasi, could not play against Chelsea in February.
But Asensio will be free to play against PSG in the quarter-finals in a boost to Emery, who managed the French side between 2016 and 2018 before leaving at the end of his contract.
Asensio did not hit the heights of his Real Madrid career after joining PSG in 2023 and he joined Villa only after he found himself out of the team under Enrique.
You may remember goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois playing against Chelsea while on loan at Atletico Madrid in the 2013/14 Champions League semi-finals.
Uefa ruled that Chelsea could not stop Courtois playing against them with Atletico going through to the final after beating Jose Mourinho’s side.
Uefa’s rules stats that clubs cannot apply “any influence whatsoever over the players that another club may (or may not) field in a match”.
In fact, Aston Villa have played against one of their own players this season: they faced Samuel Iling-Junior, who is on loan at Bologna, earlier in the competition. He came off the bench for the Italian club in their 2-0 defeat.
