Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona survived withering comebacks to advance to the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday (AEST).

Both glamour clubs took handsome leads into the second leg of their quarter-finals but gave their fans heart palpitations as Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund stormed back into the contests.

Villa beat PSG 3-2 in Birmingham as John McGinn and Ezri Konsa scored second half goals in a stunning three minute burst.

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But with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma coming up with some crucial saves, PSG had done just enough last week in Paris to advance 5-4 on aggregate.

Prince William, a huge Villa fan, had his head in his hands as he watched the stressful final minutes unfold.

“That was just a fantastic game of football,” ex-Socceroos captain Craig Foster said on Stan Sport.

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“On the final whistle, the entire crowd stood up spontaneously and applauded, just like they’d seen a really good play,” Stan Sport’s Mark Pougatch added from the Villa Park sidelines.

“And they wanted to give the cast a standing ovation. There’s no recrimination at all from the Villa fans, how can there be?

“I feel so sorry for people who don’t like sport. Honestly, we had Rory McIlroy at the weekend, we just had this here. How can you not love this because we don’t know what’s going to happen, the level of jeopardy.”

French champions PSG advanced to the semi-finals for the third time in five seasons and this time they’ve done it without their ‘galacticos,’ with Neymar, Lionel Messi and most recently Kylian Mbappe having left the club.

Before the return leg against Villa, this new-look PSG was being talked up as a potential Champions League winner but that viewpoint might be checked given the way the team nearly collapsed.

Donnarumma ended up being the saviour, diving full length to claw away a powerful shot by Marcus Rashford and a header by Youri Tielemans, and then standing tall to keep out Marco Asensio – a player on loan from PSG – when the playmaker was clean through.

Then, with virtually the last kick of the game, Villa substitute Ian Maatsen sent in a volley that might have been swerving into the corner, only for Willian Pacho to block the shot near the line.

There was as much relief as joy in the celebrations of PSG’s players.

In Dortmund, Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick to propel the hosts to a 3-1 victory.

Barcelona advanced 5-3 on aggregate.

After being swept aside 4-0 in the first leg, Dortmund had nothing to lose and attacked Barcelona from the start, leaving the visitors off balance.

Guirassy had missed chances in the first leg but made no mistake from the penalty spot in the 11th minute after Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided with Pascal Gross.

Guirassy’s header made it 2-0 in the 49th minute before an own goal by Ramy Bensebaini made Dortmund’s task even harder.

Bensebaini’s own goal was a double disappointment because he’d been crucial in the comeback attempt, assisting Guirassy’s second goal shortly before.

Guirassy completed his hat trick with a powerful close-range shot in the 76th minute, in the process becoming the Champions League’s top scorer this season on 13 goals.

It gave Dortmund fresh hope of completing what would have been one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks, but Barcelona held on to progress.

PSG and Barcelona now await the winners of Thursday’s (AEST) quarter-finals.

Arsenal lead holders Real Madrid 3-0 while Inter Milan hold a 2-1 advantage over Bayern Munich. – with AP