Thursday’s briefing: Arsenal and Villa advance as focus turns to Europa League

Aston Villa and Arsenal both progressed in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The Gunners’ reward for trouncing PSV Eindhoven over two legs is a quarter-final against defending champions Real Madrid, who won a bizarre penalty shoot-out against rivals Atletico, while Villa will face Paris St Germain.

There might have been a few nervous home fans inside Villa Park given how Club Brugge started Wednesday’s second leg, but after the 17th-minute dismissal of Kyriani Sabbe there was no doubt Villa would not only hold on to their 3-1 advantage from the first leg but build on it.

Villa may be Champions League debutants but Marco Asensio is an old hand and the three-time European champion came off the bench to score a second-half double in a 3-0 win to set up a quarter-final against his parent club PSG.

Ian Maatsen scored the other as Villa secured a 6-1 aggregate win, and a return to the Parc des Princes for former PSG boss Unai Emery.

There was never much doubt that Arsenal would advance to the last eight after their 7-1 win over PSV Eindhoven in last week’s first leg, but there was no repeat of that ruthless display as the second leg finished 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium.

Raheem Sterling, who has struggled to make a major impact on loan from Chelsea, got the assist for both Arsenal goals, the first scored by Oleksandr Zinchenko and the second nodded in by Declan Rice after former Tottenham winger Ivan Perisic had equalised. Couhaib Driouech levelled again late on.

Arsenal can expect a much tougher test in the quarter-finals where they will face Real Madrid, winners of a dramatic, controversial penalty shoot-out over rivals Atletico Madrid in which Julian Alvarez had a spot-kick disallowed by VAR after slipping in his run-up and touching the ball twice.

Manchester United have made noise with ambitious plans for the future this week but the focus returns to the present on Thursday night with Ruben Amorim’s side needing a Europa League victory over Real Sociedad at home to keep alive their last hope of silverware this term and European football next season.

Part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe caused a stir with his comments about “underperforming” players who are “not good enough” this week, and Amorim’s men will surely be determined to prove the billionaire wrong in a must-win match, with the tie poised at 1-1.

Sociedad are languishing in the bottom half of LaLiga and lost at home to Sevilla at the weekend, but given that United’s fortunes are not much better right now, they will not fear a trip to Old Trafford.

Leeds reinforced their credentials as favourites for automatic promotion with a 2-0 win over Millwall returning them to the top of the Championship.

After Sheffield United and Burnley were held to draws on Tuesday night, Leeds had no such issues with Jake Cooper’s third minute own goal giving them an early advantage before Ao Tanaka made sure late on.

The win put Leeds two points clear of the Blades and four above the Clarets with nine games left to play.