Midfield star confident Aston Villa can cause Champions League surprise in Paris

Unai Emery’s team head into Wednesday’s quarter-final first leg in France as significant underdogs against a PSG team which knocked out Liverpool in the previous round.

But Tielemans, the only player to start every match in the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup this season, believes Villa have already demonstrated they have what it takes to bring down the continent’s big guns.

The tie represents the biggest match in more than four decades for Villa, in what is their first season back in Europe’s elite club competition since losing to Juventus at the quarter-final stage in 1983.

But Emery’s men have already beaten Bayern Munich and drawn with Juventus in this years competition and Tielemans said: “It’s just a case of performing at the right moments, we have some players with a lot of experience and you can tell with the way we play in this competition against some of the biggest teams we’ve played against. 

“I don’t need to mention the names of those teams. Some of the results we’ve had have been really good and the way we adapted to the competition was brilliant. 

“The main thing is our focus and mentality going into games knowing we can do something here but also knowing we have tough opponents. 

“We are always ready and prepared and want to do the best for ourselves.” 

Tielemans, who has been a key part of Villa’s success this season, said Emery “had a plan” for how to bring down PSG, on what is the manager’s first return to his former club since leaving in 2018.

For Marco Asensio, the return has been far quicker. The Spain international only joined Villa on loan from PSG at the start of February but has proved a huge success, scoring eight goals.

Asked about how Asensio was feeling as he prepared for the unusual experience of facing his parent club, Tielemans replied: “It’s probably strange for him because you never predict in advance you will face your own team. 

“He has been brilliant since he came in, worked hard on the pitch for the team defensively. “Then offensively speaking you can see his class whenever he touches the ball. 

“I remember his first cameo at Villa Park, it was just brilliant, he just glided through some of the midfielders he came up against 

“I like him as he works very hard for the team. He is someone who takes responsibility off the ball. He tries to pick up spaces and that is really good for me as I can pass him the ball in forward areas. 

“Off the pitch he is just a really calm good guy who works hard.”

Asked if Asensio’s work rate was an overlooked quality to his game, Tielemans said: “Yeah, probably. When you look at him you don’t think he is a hard-worker in that sense. 

“He is probably more so a ball player but off the ball he does his job really good and that is what we need from him.

“You don’t think he’s a hard worker, more a ball player but off the ball he does job really well and we need that from every player.

“He has been working really hard on the pitch, off the pitch. He has fitted into the team really well and in the system. It suits him to play as the number 10 off the striker. It allows him to be free around the striker, so we can find him between the lines.”

Villa head into the games having won seven on the spin in all competitions and Tielemans continued: “Last season we came into this stage in the Conference League. This game is a lot bigger but it is the same thing, apart from the opponent. 

“The stage of the competition is really good and we just want to make a name for ourselves. We want to try and win the game there but it is going to be hard.”