Prince William sends defiant message after Aston Villa beaten in Paris
Prince William sounded a note of defiance after Villa fell to Champions League defeat in Paris declaring: "It's not over yet."
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The heir to the throne and Villa's most famous supporter was present at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night to watch Unai Emery's team fall to a 3-1 defeat in the quarter-final first leg.
William, who also took son Prince George to the match, was interviewed by broadcaster TNT Sports before kick-off and greeted Villa's players with hugs and words of encouragement as they came off the pitch after the warm-up.
But he was unable to inspire them to victory as despite Morgan Rogers putting Villa into the lead, the hosts hit back through goals from Desire Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes, the latter netting in stoppage time.
That goal means Villa are big underdogs in next Tuesday's second leg but William is among those who believes they can pull it off.
A message posted on the official account of the Prince and Princess of Wales read: "A big night in the Champions League under the lights.
"Not the result we wanted but it's not over yet. Bring on the second leg at Villa Park! UTV."
William's words echoed those of Emery and his players after the match. Though Mendes' late strike appears to have made Villa's task far harder, the manager insisted it had changed little heading into the second leg.
Emery even claimed a 2-1 or 3-1 defeat had been pretty much what he expected from the first leg.
He said: "It was more or less the expectation I had before the match - 2-1 or 3-1.
“We will play at home next week and it will be a huge challenge for us, but we will feel strong at home with our supporters at Villa Park.
"It’s not changing a lot. At 2-1 we were thinking for the next match playing to win at 3-1 it’s still the same, we need to win the next match by not just one goal, two.
"I’m very proud of the players and how we are developing with our increasing demands and playing against PSG.
"We compete fantastic and we were close to get a good result. At the end with this goal it’s more or less the same. I believe Villa Park is our home, hopefully we can be stronger, get the duels better than today and have our moment more than today."
