Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Aston Villa: French champions secure stylish comeback win

A trio of stunning strikes from Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes earned a comeback success for Paris after Aston Villa stunned the Parc des Princes with Morgan Rogers' 35th-minute opener.

Match in brief: Paris fightback floors Villa

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia accepts the acclaim after giving Paris the leadAnadolu via Getty Images

Paris, fresh from sealing the Ligue 1 title on Saturday, restored Ousmane Dembélé to their attack and it was their top scorer who stung the palms of visiting goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez early on.

Villa rode out that early Parisian pressure but allowed Vitinha too much space on the edge of the box midway through the opening half, the Portuguese international sending a right-footed curler narrowly too high.

The opening goal was surely coming but very few would have predicted it would come with the first meaningful attack from the Premier League visitors. Captain John McGinn won possession just inside the Villa half before spraying the ball out wide for Marcus Rashford who, in turn, fed Youri Tielemans on the overlap. The Belgian midfielder's low cross dissected the home defence, allowing the unmarked Morgan Rogers to power into the net from close range.

Morgan Rogers converts Youri Tielemans' pinpoint centre Getty Images

Fearing a repeat of Paris' dominance in their round of 16 first-leg home loss to Liverpool, those of a home persuasion were quickly relieved as their team drew level in under five minutes. When Désiré Doué's awkward low effort almost crept in via the post, forcing Martínez to claw it off the line, Paris made the resulting corner count. They worked the ball from the right all the way out to Doué on the edge of the area to the left of goal, the 19-year-old shifting possession into a shooting position and unleashing a gorgeous curling effort into the top corner.

Désiré Doué sends a curling effort into the top cornerGetty Images

Les Rouge-et-Bleu, who racked up 15 attempts in the first period, continued in the same vein after the interval and took just over three minutes after the restart to take the lead with another spectacular strike.

In almost a carbon copy of the flowing counter that brought Villa the opener, Paris forced a turnover in their own half before streaming forward thanks to Fabián Ruiz's sweeping ball out to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in space on the left. His driving run took him to the edge of the area, before a piece of trickery bamboozled Axel Disasi, giving the Georgian winger the space to power a left-footed thunderbolt high into the roof of the net.

Both teams went in search of further goals, stand-in home skipper Achraf Hakimi bringing the best out of Martínez with a crisp drive, and Rogers unable to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma after latching on to McGinn's pass.

Just as former Paris coach Unai Emery appeared to be heading back to England with a narrow first-leg deficit to overturn, his old team extended their lead with a third finely-crafted goal of the night. Some patient passing just inside Villa territory suddenly upped a gear with Dembélé's defence-splitting through ball picking out Nuno Mendes, who cut inside with a deft feint to force Martínez and Ezri Konsa into committing before lofting the ball into the unguarded net with his right.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with his Player of the Match awardUEFA via Getty Images

PlayStation® Player of the Match: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris)

"He worked very hard during the whole game, making himself available and posing the biggest threat. He delighted everyone with a piece of magic for Paris' second goal, providing a finish that had quality, individual talent and an example of how to pause and control the tempo of the game when an attacker enters the opposition box. Everything he did was with intent and quality, on and off the ball."
UEFA Technical Observer Group

Alex Clementson, Paris reporter

A result that mirrors the balance of proceedings and one which neither flatters the victors nor diminishes the talents of Aston Villa. It's also a performance that sums up Paris' Champions League campaign, especially here at home. They've dominated in large swathes, asserting their authority from the off. The only difference from their opening games in the competition? An ability to fully capitalise on their ascendancy. Nobody needed reminding, but Paris are genuine contenders.

John Atkin, Aston Villa reporter

Luis Enrique celebrated and well he might. After 91 minutes, Villa would perhaps have been satisfied following a backs-to-the-wall performance of industrious tenacity and dogged determination. Rogers' first-half opener was a bit of a lucky punch, and Paris duly picked themselves up and twice picked Villa off either side of half-time. The visitors dug in, and a one-goal deficit looked just reward before Nuno Mendes' telling late blow. On to Villa Park in six days; stranger things have happened.

Reaction 

Luis Enrique, Paris coach: "I think we deserved to win the match and scoring in the last minute was great for us and for our confidence. We now have to think about the second leg, which is going to be difficult."

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Paris forward and Player of the Match: "[We were up against] a difficult side. We are happy with this result, but we have to keep going as there is the second game and the job is not finished. [The second leg] will be difficult, but we have to try to play our game and we will see what is happening there."

Unai Emery, Aston Villa coach: "The third goal doesn’t change a lot. At 2-1 we were thinking of the second leg as a game that we would want to win. We’re still here; I’m really proud of the players. How we’re developing at Aston Villa, in our demands, playing here against PSG. We competed fantastically. We were close to a good result."

Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa forward: "It was difficult. They're obviously a really good team with stars all over the pitch. We've watched their last few games and know how deadly and sharp they've been. They've put the world on notice now."

Key stats

• Coach Luis Enrique took charge of Paris for the 100th time.
• This was Aston Villa's first European Cup quarter-final since a 5-2 aggregate defeat against Juventus in 1982/83.
• Paris have now beaten three English sides in this season's competition: Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa.
• Aston Villa are without a win in their six away matches against French teams (D2 L4).
• This victory made it seven wins in eight UEFA Champions League matches for Les Rouge-et-Bleu (L1).
• Désiré Doué struck for a fourth outing running, netting a total of five goals in that time.
• The Villans had won each of their previous seven matches prior to this encounter.

Fantasy star performers

Nuno Mendes: 13 points
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia: 11 points
Désiré Doué: 8 points

Line-ups

Paris: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Lucas Beraldo, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; João Neves, Vitinha, Fabián Ruiz (Zaïre-Emery 72); Doué (Barcola 72), Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia (Gonçalo Ramos 90+3)

Aston Villa: Martínez; Cash (Disasi 46), Konsa, Pau Torres, Digne; Tielemans (Maatsen 80), Kamara; Rogers, McGinn (Onana 80), Ramsey (Asensio 59); Rashford (Watkins 79)