If you hoped for end-to-end stuff in the PSG versus Aston Villa game, well, think again. PSG continued where they left off against Liverpool. They completely dominated Aston Villa in their 3-1 victory at home.
One word to describe this team is pressure.
As soon as the referee sounded the whistle for kickoff, PSG made sure Aston Villa knew whose house it was. Villa were forced to sit back and defend for much of the first half as the French champions gave them no space.
The Parisians played fluid football, and they tested Martinez as quickly as possible. A beautiful passage of play set up Vitinha for a long-range strike. Although he didn’t have the cleanest connection, the shot forced Martinez into an early save.
Minutes later, PSG were on the front foot again. This time, Martinez had to make an even better save.
The French champions carved out a chance from a very tight spot, and Dembele’s snapshot forced Martinez into a brilliant save. Martinez was kept busy for most of the first half.
The French supporters were getting louder by the minute, but in the twinkling of an eye, they went quiet. Aston Villa, against the run of play, scored a well-thought-out goal against the Parisians.
Nuno Mendes, after winning possession brilliantly, lost the ball in the middle of the park, and the English side pounced immediately.
McGinn played a brilliant pass to the left side, finding Rashford, who touched the ball onto Tielemans. With space in front of him, Tielemans slotted a clean pass back to the right into the path of Rogers. All Rogers had to do was tap the ball into the net.
Just like that , Villa had the lead. But not for long.
PSG responded immediately. Another fantastic passage of play found Desire Doue who fired the ball at goal but Martinez was on hand to stop the ball right on the goal line. The goalkeeper was brilliant in the first half and equal to the task.
The clearance from the save resulted in a PSG corner and boy oh boy. The corner gets dealt with by Villa but the Parisians play a pass across the field to find Doue.
He takes on Rogers and bends his shot into the net. The technique on the goal is absolutely wonderful as it hits the bottom of the bar and lands in the bottom of the net.
With the score level with minutes to go for half time, Doue tested Martinez once again from the same angle but this time, the keeper was up to the task.
In the second half, PSG piled on the pressure as quickly as possible and in the 49th minute, they took the lead.
Kvaratshelia who has been running at the Villa defense all night finally gets his goal. The Georgian winger dazzles Axel Disasi with trickery, turning the Chelsea loanee inside out before rifling a shot past Martinez.
After the second goal, it was all Paris Saint Germain. They refused to take their foot off the gas. Shots flew from left, right and center. They were all over Aston Villa. Martinez did his best to keep the scoreline at 2-1 but it was only a matter of minutes before the French side scored again.
With less than 1 minute of additional time to go, Dembele played a through ball to the feet of Nuno Mendes who sat down Emi Martinez and the rushing Villa defender before firing the ball into the net.
PSG dominated from start to finish and the scoreline showed that. With the performance today, they are now one leg into the semi finals of the UEFA Champions League.
