The French top club was about to go completely wrong and got away with a narrow escape – largely thanks to Gianluigi Donnarumma's enormous effort between the posts.
Villa's 3–2 win was a goal short. 4–2 would have meant 30 minutes of extra time for a semifinal spot against either Real Madrid or Arsenal.
As early as after just over ten minutes, the cold shower hit the home team in the heavy rain in Birmingham.
Poor defensive play by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and Pau Torres led to Achraf Hakimi's leading goal for Paris SG. The Villa players didn't agree and on the return from the Argentine World Championship-winning goalkeeper, Hakimi scored the goal.
Trailing 0–2
3–1 at home at Parc des Princes last week was extended to 4–1 overall. Aston Villa was forced to score three goals and keep a tight defense to force extra time.
Nuno Mendes seemed to put an end to those hopes when he scored 2–0 and 5–1 overall on a counterattack.
But the match was far from over. Youri Tielemans reduced the score via a PSG defender and John McGinn also got help from a foot when he equalized.
Just minutes later, Villa turned 0–2 into 3–2 through Ezri Konsa and frantically chased the necessary fourth goal for the rest of the match.
Barcelona went into tonight's other quarterfinal return with a significant lead thanks to 4–0 at home.
Hattrick by Guirassy
But Dortmund hadn't given up. Serhou Guirassy scored an early penalty to make it 1–0 and also scored 2–0 shortly after halftime. Unfortunately for the Germans, Ramy Bensebaini then scored an own goal.
Guirassy celebrated a hattrick in the 3–1 win, but it didn't help.
Barcelona will meet either Inter or Bayern München in the semifinal, which will be decided over two matches.
Daniel Svensson played from the start again in Dortmund.
