The pick of the stats as Aston Villa welcome PSG and Arsenal travel to Real Madrid in Champions League

England’s two remaining Champions League representatives experienced contrasting fortunes in the first legs of their respective quarter-final ties.

Aston Villa face the daunting task of cancelling out a two-goal deficit against a rampant PSG side who had the weekend off, while Arsenal surely can’t have imagined that they would be heading to the Bernabeu with a three-goal cushion on Real Madrid.

To preview both clashes involving Premier League clubs, we’ve compiled some juicy stats for you to sink your teeth into.

Aston Villa (1) v (3) PSG (Tuesday 15 April, 8pm BST)

Unai Emery suffered defeat at the hands of his former club in the first leg (Image credit: Alamy)Nuno Mendes’ late strike in the first leg has left Aston Villa needing to beat PSG by two goals just to force extra time at Villa Park. The bad news: the French champions have only been defeated by such a margin twice in the last 12 months.

The (potentially) good news: PSG have lost by two or more goals on each of their last two trips to England. Les Parisiens went down 2-0 at Arsenal in the league phase of this season’s Champions League and 4-1 at Newcastle in the 2023/24 group stage.

Complete a momentous comeback and Villa will reach their second semi-final in this competition, having previously done so en route to winning the 1981/82 European Cup; PSG, meanwhile, are aiming to take their place in the last four for the third time in five years.

Real Madrid (0) v (3) Arsenal (Wednesday 16 April, 8pm BST)

Arsenal have never lost to Real Madrid (Image credit: Alamy)Arsenal’s incredible first-leg triumph over the reigning European champions has put them on the cusp of their third Champions League semi-final – and their first since 2009, when they lost an all-English affair to Manchester United.

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The Gunners have never held such a commanding first-leg lead in the Champions League era – while the only previous time that Madrid lost a Champions League first leg by three or more goals (4-1 away to Borussia Dortmund in the 2012/13 semis), they also lost on aggregate.

Mikel Arteta and co. will take nothing for granted – three-, and even four-, goal deficits have been overcome in this competition – but Madrid will have to record their biggest second-leg victory in 11 years (since beating Bayern Munich 4-0 to complete a 5-0 aggregate semi-final triumph) if they’re to keep their hopes of retaining the trophy alive.