Unai Emery and Aston Villa will have first-time achievements on their mind when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
A night on from Arsenal producing their performance of the season to overcome Real Madrid in the first leg of their quarter-final, Villa are at Parc des Princes bidding to upset the odds against PSG.
Although the recent resurgence of the West Midlands outfit has left them in seventh position in the Premier League table, Villa may still ultimately need to win this competition to earn a second successive campaign in this competition.
At a time when Villa have put together a seven-match winning streak in all competitions, PSG are unbeaten in Ligue 1 and have prevailed in 16 of their most recent 17 matches.
As such, the French giants are the favourites for this contest without taking into consideration two streaks that are against Emery and his club.
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Villa bidding to make history
In five previous encounters with French opposition on away territory, Villa have failed to win a single game, posting two draws and three defeats during that time.
Two of those matches have taken place over the past year, Villa losing out 2-1 at Lille in 2024, albeit progressing to the Conference League semi-finals on penalties, and going down 1-0 at Monaco in January.
Furthermore, Emery has never defeated Luis Enrique in an away game across his career, prevailing just twice in 10 matches in total.
However, it should be noted that each of those encounters took place between 2013 and 2017, when Emery was in charge of Sevilla and PSG respectively.
These two managers last met when Luis Enrique guided Barcelona to a 6-1 triumph over Emery's PSG at Camp Nou in the second leg of a Champions League last-16 tie. PSG had led 4-0 on aggregate heading into that contest.
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First-time meeting
Wednesday's encounter represents the first time that these two teams have ever squared off in a competitive match.
Nevertheless, PSG are no strangers to playing English opposition this season, already facing the Premier League trio of Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool.
Most recently, Liverpool were edged out on penalties in the last 16 after the tie ended 1-1 on aggregate, but PSG did go down 2-0 at Arsenal during the League Phase.
Perhaps most notably, they came from two goals down to record a 4-2 victory over Man City in January, incredibly scoring four times from the 56th minute onwards to earn a pivotal win in their campaign.
In Ligue 1 during 2024-25, PSG have recorded 12 wins and two draws from their 14 matches at Parc des Princes.
Darren Plant
