A grave error was made before kick-off of Aston Villa’s crunch Champions League quarter-final second leg clash with Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday evening.
Unai Emery’s side went into the match 3-1 down from the first leg, but had hopes of reaching the last-four of the competition with the backing of their home fans after being second best in Paris.
The atmosphere was strong before kick-off, with a sold out crowd proving to be vocal ahead of a fast start in Birmingham. But it wasn’t a fast start in terms of those in control of the PA system.
After the teams made their ways out to the pitch, they lined up in front of the main stand to prepare for the Champions League anthem to be played. Only, it didn’t.
Instead, the Europa League anthem played – a competition that Villa haven’t participated in for nearly 15 years, last featuring in the 2010-11 season.
Both sides stood awkwardly as the wrong competition’s music played, while the likes of Vitinha appeared to share a joke with his team-mates and the likes of Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa struggling to hold in their laughter before the handshakes began without the anthem making an appearance.
Aston Villa played the Europa League anthem instead of Champions League before the second leg of their clash with Paris Saint-Germain
Villa were tasked with overturning a two-goal deficit from the first leg in Paris last week
A number of players appeared to see the funny side of things, including Vitinha (left) and Youri Tielemans (right) and Ezri Konsa
Avid Villa fan Prince William was in attendance for the crunch game alongside son George
‘Someone has miscued the Champions League anthem,’ Amazon Prime commentator Jon Champion said as the music played. ‘It’s not what we have come to expect.’
He later added: ‘Better late than never’ after the right anthem did eventually play.
Fans, meanwhile, weren’t afraid to make their displeasure known as they booed the second-tier European competition.
Villa fans had a large tifo on show before the game, which read: ‘This is Villa Park,’ accompanied by two lions.
Emery’s men were one of just two English sides left in the competition, essentially hoping to meet Arsenal in the semi-finals after the Gunners beat Real Madrid 3-0 in their first leg last week.
But Villa got off to the worst start when Achraf Hakimi made it 4-1 on aggregate early on following an error from Emiliano Martinez.
Prince William watched on, having impressed last week when speaking to TNT Sports to give some analysis pre-game. He cut a disappointed figure in the crowd as the tie ran out of reach early on.
Nuno Mendes soon seemingly put the tie to bed, scoring his second goal of the tie to make it 5-1 and threaten a brutal night for the club, but Tielemans did net before the break.
Villa were given brief hope when club captain John McGinn made it 2-2 on the night just after half-time, and Ezri Konsa soon cut the deficit to one.
