Italy star Donnarumma’s ‘generational performance’ earns praise | OneFootball

Italy international Gianluigi Donnarumma is earning praise from all quarters after his extraordinary performance against Aston Villa sent PSG into the Champions League semi-finals.

It might seem odd for the goalkeeper to be hailed as the hero after his team fumbled a 2-0 lead, 5-1 on aggregate, to lose 3-1 on the night, but he made at least three absolutely decisive saves to prevent Villa taking the tie to extra time.

Both the Paris Saint-Germain social media account and the official Ligue 1 account posted images of Donnarumma as a wall, while fans flocked to X in order to publicly apologise for having doubted him before.

“In order to win the Champions League, you need a great goalkeeper, and he proved his worth today,” Marquinhos told Canal+ Foot.

It was described as a “generational game” by CBS Sports Golazo.

Mockery of UEFA for not naming Donnarumma Man of the Match

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – APRIL 15: Marco Asensio of Aston Villa takes a shot whilst under pressure from Gianluigi Donnarumma of Paris Saint-Germain during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Quarter Final Second Leg match between Aston Villa FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Villa Park on April 15, 2025 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Nonetheless, Ousmane Dembele was voted Player of the Match by UEFA’s panel, a decision that was roundly mocked by the Sky Sport Italia studio crew.

“Honestly, Dembele should’ve gone over and handed the trophy to Donnarumma, because the people who voted for this clearly don’t understand a damn thing about football,” said Boban, who has experience in the highest levels of UEFA.

“There is a head of football whose job it is to oversee, usually he doesn’t intervene to overturn the decision of the panel, but in this case he probably should’ve done.”

Capello went even further in the Sky Sport Italia studio, insisting UEFA should “identify the three who consulted and made this decision, then ban them from voting again on the MVP. Just throw them out. I don’t know what match they were watching.”

“I’ve known for years how good he is. He’s so big, but he can get to the ball so quickly. In order to reach the semi-final of the Champions League, you need a great goalkeeper, and his saves got us there,” Marquinhos told Sky Sport Italia.

“He is gaining more and more confidence, he saved us again today, we needed a great goalkeeper on Marco Asensio especially, but he made two or three saves to bring the result home.”

Of course, Donnarumma was already decisive in getting PSG to the Champions League quarter-final in the first place, thanks to his heroics in the penalty shoot-out against Liverpool.

Curiously, that too was on English soil just like in Birmingham this evening, and of course he helped Italy win the EURO 2020 trophy at Wembley Stadium against England.