Wayne Rooney sends Man Utd message to Marcus Rashford after PSG knock out Aston Villa

Wayne Rooney singled out Marcus Rashford for special praise after Aston Villa’s win in vain against PSG and challenged the forward to replicate his excellent form back at Manchester United.

Villa had a mountain to climb, trailing 3-1 from the Champions League quarter-final first leg, and a pair of early goals from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes seemingly extinguished any hope of progression.

But Youri Tielemans and John McGinn struck either side of half-time to transform Villa Park into a cacophony of noise and Ezri Konsa’s composed 57th-minute effort almost took the roof off the stadium.

Marcus Rashford looked back to his frightening best across a magnificent second-half display and the Manchester United loanee provided the assist for Konsa with some sublime wing play down the right flank.

But while Rashford provided a constant threat, causing problems with his pace and trickery before being replaced in the 76th minute, the visitors managed to cling on without conceding a fourth, thanks largely to the goalkeeping heroics of an inspired Gianluigi Donnarumma.

PSG’s 3-2 defeat on the night was ultimately enough to send the French champions through and Rooney felt Unai Emery’s men will be ‘disappointed’ to come up short at the death.

‘How they came out for the second half was excellent. They came out with a belief and an energy, they felt like they had nothing to lose,’ the former Manchester United and England captain said on Amazon Prime’s coverage.

‘They will be proud with their performance but also really disappointed as well because the goals they conceded in the first half were really avoidable and that’s what cost them the tie.

‘The goals they conceded in the first half were sloppy and nowhere near good enough at this level.

‘That’s ultimately what has cost them.’

Rooney gave a ‘massive shout out’ to a resurgent Rashford, praising the attacker’s ‘ability’ and ‘awareness’ across a fine individual display.

Asked if he thought Villa had a chance after Konsa’s goal, Rooney replied: ‘100 per cent.

‘They were on the front foot, PSG were rocked, they were rattled and Villa were going for them.

‘I have to say, I have to give a massive shout out to Marcus Rashford. I thought he was fantastic, the Rashford we’ve seen over the years.

‘His skill, his ability, getting at players, driving at players and then his awareness to pull the ball back.

‘When this goal goes in, you can feel the atmosphere and the Villa players get that belief that they can get back in the tie.

‘They probably just ran out of energy. They gave a lot to that 20 minutes and PSG saw the game out well.

‘But it was a fantastic effort from all the Villa players, the fans got right behind them and, unfortunately, they just fells short.’

While Rashford is reportedly keen to stay on at Villa beyond the end of the season, Rooney is confident the forward would ‘100 per cent’ prefer to return to Manchester United and ‘leave a legacy’ at Old Trafford.

‘I hope he goes back to Manchester United and performs like he did today,’ Rooney continued.

‘That’s what we all want to see as United fans.

‘He wants to play for Manchester United, 100 per cent.

‘He’s a United lad, but he needed to play and it was clear he wanted to play.

‘Marcus Rashford, in an ideal world, would want to play and leave a legacy at United. If that’s possible, I don’t know, but that’s what I would love to see.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.