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Aston Villa hero Marco Asensio WILL face parent club PSG in Champions League quarter-final thanks to little-known rule

ASTON VILLA star Marco Asensio will be able to play against his parent club PSG in the Champions League quarter-final.

The 29-year-old joined Villa in January on a six-month loan from the French giants.

Marco Asensio of Aston Villa celebrates a goal.
Getty
Marco Asensio can face PSG in the Champions League quarter-final[/caption]

Asensio has made a stunning start to life in Birmingham, scoring two last night to seal last-16 victory over Club Brugge.

The strikes took his goal tally to seven in eight games.

Villa face PSG in the next round and the Spanish midfielder is eligible to play.

Players are banned from facing their parent side in the Premier League but this rule does not apply in the Champions League.

Uefa regulations state teams do not have “any influence whatsoever over the players that another club may (or may not) field in a match”.

Villa had the rule go against them earlier this season when on loan man Samuel Iling-Junior came on at Villa Park for Bologna in the league phase.

Looking ahead to the quarter-final, it is not just Asensio who will be looking to haunt his old employers on April 9 and 15 as boss Unai Emery used to manage the Parisians from 2016 to 2018.

But fans reckon it is written in the stars for the ex-Real Madrid star to score the winner, with one saying: “That would be absolutely beautiful.”

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Another added: “Asensio knocking out PSG in the next round of the Champions League is the sort of s***housery I’m all up for.”

He already has Champions League pedigree, having lifted the trophy three times at Real Madrid.

Champions League path to the final.

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Premier League club to DOUBLE stadium’s capacity with huge redevelopment plan as owner admits ‘we need to improve it’

BOURNEMOUTH are set to more than double their stadium capacity.

The Cherries’ Vitality Stadium home holds just 11,307 fans – making it by far the smallest ground in the Premier League.

Aerial view of Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth.
Alamy
Bournemouth are aiming to expand their current Dean Court home[/caption]
Assistant referee running on a soccer field.
Reuters
The Vitality Stadium holds 11,307 fans[/caption]

Club owner Bill Foley has previously discussed the possibility of Bournemouth building a new stadium.

But during a recent appearance on talkSPORT, the American revealed that the Cherries are now aiming to expand their current Dean Court site.

After claiming that Bournemouth will be moving to their new training ground in April, the 80-year-old said: “We are well underway to having a solution for our stadium with several stages in mind.

“The first stage would be to grow to about 16,000 seats, the next stage would be about 20,000, and the third stage would be to about 24,000 seats.

“Much more hospitality and a much more welcoming environment, in terms of when people arrive and how they get into the stands and so on.”

The Vitality Stadium is privately owned by property company Structadene.

Foley wants to buy Bournemouth’s stadium outright before beginning redevelopment work.

He added: “We are hopefully going to be acquiring the Vitality.

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“We have a plan in place. It is going to be a staged effort, and we need to have the council’s approval.

“We’ll start with the south stand, and we’ll really expand that and make that a permanent stand with some hospitality.

“At the same time we’re going to be redoing the main stand in terms of hospitality and ingress and egress, high speed elevators and so on so people aren’t having to walk up three flights to go to have lunch and then walk down two flights to go to their seats, and then walk two flights up again.

“The stadium is just antiquated and we need to improve it.”

On the work that has gone on behind the scenes, Foley continued: “We’ve been working hard on it. Our general contractor was over in Las Vegas last Monday and we spent four or five hours together, going through options and looking at the stages and how we move forward.

“Now we’re working with the council to see if we can get fairly quick approval for what we want to do.

“We’ve already raised the money, so the sooner we get approvals and we get our design plan in place, we’ve already retained our architects and retained our builder and so on, we’ll be ready to go.

“People will be surprised with how quickly we go with this situation.”

Foley also revealed that Bournemouth are looking to extend boss Andoni Iraola‘s contract, with the Spaniard’s current deal set to expire at the end of next season.

According to talkSPORT, Iraola would be Tottenham’s top candidate to replace Ange Postecoglou, should the under-fire Aussie be sacked.

Bill Foley, owner of AFC Bournemouth.
Getty
Bill Foley revealed Bournemouth’s plans to talkSPORT[/caption]

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Cheltenham Festival 2025 LIVE: Race results, updates and winners from Day 3

Cheltenham Racing Festival - Day Three
It’s St Patrick’s Thursday at Cheltenham (Picture: Getty)

Day Three of Cheltenham Festival 2025 is here with another stacked day of horse racing action taking place on St Patrick’s Thursday.

There are seven more races across the day at Prestbury Park to follow another thrilling day of action on Wednesday.

Marine Nationale upset heavy favourite Jonbon in the Champion Chase before Jazzy Matty roared home in the Grand Annual Chase just 40 minutes later.

Metro’s live blog will have results, winners and updates throughout the day across all seven races with all the latest betting tips and odds to help you bag a few winners.

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