Wed Mar 12 21:50:00 UTC 2025: ## Aston Villa and Arsenal Cruise to Champions League Quarterfinals
**London/Birmingham –** Aston Villa and Arsenal secured comfortable victories in their Champions League Round of 16 second legs, advancing to the quarterfinals without significant trouble. Villa dispatched Club Brugge 3-0 at Villa Park (6-1 on aggregate), while Arsenal drew 2-2 with PSV Eindhoven at the Emirates Stadium but progressed with a commanding 9-3 aggregate win.
John McGinn, Aston Villa’s midfielder, commented on the match, highlighting the team’s second-half resurgence and the difficulty of their previous opponent, PSG. He noted, “It’s been a lot of years of hard work. We let ourselves down in the first half. We regrouped at half-time and we were lucky to have Marco [presumably referring to a substitute player] come off the bench and put in a performance. We deserved to go through over the two legs. It doesn’t get much harder than PSG over two legs.”
While both English teams celebrated their victories, Arsenal’s celebrations were slightly tempered by a late booking for Raheem Sterling, ruling him out of the first leg of the next round. Aston Villa saw strong performances from players like Asensio, who scored a goal and impressed throughout.
Elsewhere, Plymouth secured a 2-1 win over Portsmouth in the Championship despite playing a man down for a significant portion of the match. Other Championship results saw Hull beat Oxford 2-1, Leeds defeat Millwall 2-0, and Watford edge out Swansea 1-0.
First Piper 