Scotland ace labelled a 'true captain' as pundit waxes lyrical over 'steamroller' moment

Scotland international John McGinn has been labelled as a ‘warrior’ after his performance for Aston Villa against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

The former Hibs favourite took centre stage as Unai Emery’s team almost completed a comeback for the ages against Paris Saint-Germain in the Midlands. Already 3-1 down from last week’s first leg at the Parc des Princes, Villa looked dead and buried when early goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the French giants into a comfortable 5-1 lead on aggregate.

However, inspired by McGinn, the home side would launch an extraordinary comeback when the Scottish cult hero teed up Youri Tielemans for a goal just before the break, before the 30-year-old reduced the deficit further with a long-range strike just 10 minutes after the restart. Ezri Konsa then completely flipped the tie on its head, smashing the ball home just two minutes later to make it 5-4 on aggregate.

Sadly for Villa, the all-important goal that would have levelled the tie never came, despite Konsa, McGinn, Marco Asensio and Ian Maatsen all going close in a pulsating final half an hour of the game. Despite the crushing disappointment of the loss, McGinn believes the club’s outstanding Champions League run can inspire he and his teammates to go even further next year.

John McGinn scores Aston Villa's second goal vs Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night. Cr: Getty Images. | Getty Images

"Obvious disappointment but I am proud of my teammates, proud of the club,” McGinn said. “We have come a long way. We were so, so close tonight. We just fell a little bit short. We had chances to take the game to extra-time but we've got to be proud about the way we came back against one of the best teams in the world, to fight to the end. We want more. We want to be back here next season and we will try our best to do that."

Speaking on CBS Sports Golazo in the aftermath of the game, ex-Aston Villa midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker raved about McGinn’s display, saying: “I thought he had a fantastic game. A captain’s performance. I speak to a few people at the club, and they say he’s a great, great lad. A really great lad, a natural leader, he commands the dressing room - that’s why he’s captain. People follow him, as the good leader that he is. I thought he was great today. What a lot of people don’t see about John McGinn is that quality when he drives with the ball. When he picks that ball up and drives forward with the ball - so many things happen.

“Some people might see it as just athleticism, but it’s not. It’s driving with the ball, close control, breaking lines, and that way teams have to adjust. Then if you’ve got willing runners, you can make that pass. That’s what he does so brilliantly well.

Fellow pundit Nico Cantor echoed Reo-Coker’s thoughts on McGinn, saying: “They were very few salvageable moments from the first leg, but he provoked the turnover that led to the Villa goal and gave them somewhat of a chance. They led 1-0. He’s such a warrior, he steam-rolled Vitinha! You have to be willing to grab the bull by the horns in a time of adversity, and there’s a lot of people who don’t have the audacity to do that. That’s a player you want in your team.”