Aston Villa was 75 seconds of something very satisfactory here. Outpied, often overwhelmed and sometimes under siege, the players of Unai Emery were nevertheless in this match at 2-1 below and therefore in this equality while we were passionate about three minutes of additional time.
A deficit to a goal to bring to Villa Park for the second floor of next week would have increased hope and optimism and a feeling of anticipation. There would have been a question of a famous European night in sight.
But one of the beauties of two -legged football is the speed with which it can change, how a moment can basically change the psychological and emotional sensation of equality. This is almost what happened here in front of a French crowd which carries his despair for a European title, so naked, he sometimes has the impression that we can taste him in the air.
It seemed strange that only three minutes were added by Italian officials. There had been stops and the usual substitute raft. But three it was and villa seemed to shake comfortably through them when a net passage through the heart of the defense of the villa by Ousmane Dembele sent Nuno Mendes Claire.
The Portuguese rear – intimidated embarrassing the ball by John McGinn when Villa had taken a surprising advance in the first half – had a lot to do as he relaxed the left side. He came from an angle and villa had a defensive cover. But the pretends he put on the goalkeeper of Villa Emi Martinez got rid of him and, in fact, the defender Pau Torres and after that, he had only an empty objective to aim from a question of yards. He did not miss.
So now he feels different. Now the chances are strongly in favor of PSG. They are not a team without weakness and Villa will know that they can disturb them with the ball. But it is almost impossible to see a team as powerful as it does not mark at least one of their own in Birmingham and it is fundamentally where their power is.
Desire Doue scored a superb objective when PSG came from behind to win a 3-1 victory on Aston Villa
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia deceived Axel Disasi before shooting PSG in the second period
Nuno Mendes added a third in stoppage in the second half to give Villa a mountain to climb
Villa cannot say that they were harshly made. PSG was just fabulous and exhilarating to look each time they were poured forward. This, sometimes, was less a football match and more a survival exercise for villa, their defensive line holding like a white navy wall trying desperately to push the waves of blue from PSG.
The Georgian PSG player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, was absolutely bewitching while the French adolescent Desire Doue was similar. They scored the two goals of PSG on each side of the half-time which led the French champions in mind after Morgan Rogers had somehow gave Villa an advantage with a rare attack on the head in the 35th minute.
These two PSG goals were fabulous. Breathtaking, they summed up the way Luis Enrique team approached this match. There was so much conviction regarding the PSG attack game, they simply presented a team that does not want to be refused this season.
They should have been early early. Kvaratskhelia could have had a penalty when Boubacar Kamara defeated him but Dembele went to the rebound and Martinez hit his journey. The danger came to Villa everywhere, especially from large overloads. Villa had Marcus Rashford at the front to give them a ball on the counter, but the players of Emery just couldn’t help it.
PSG was happy to work on their chances inside the penalty surface or to shoot at a distance. Martinez saved a couple and others were blocked. And then, remarkably, villa marked.
McGinn was the architect, flying Mendes like a street attacker. Its side pass from right to left in Rashford opened the space and when your Tielemans was nourished by the overlap, its low cross was converted to the post distant by Rogers.
Liverpool also did this at PSG here, but their goal came much later. Here, PSG had time to answer and did it almost immediately. Martinez groped a shot to concede a corner and when the ball was recycled on the nearby side, Doue curled up a fairly special goal in the underside of the bar from 20 meters.
It was a fabulous goal and the 19-year-old young man almost scored four minutes later, finding space to work Martinez above his head, then driving another blow. While we reach half-time, the normal service had resumed a lot and at the start of the second period, PSG again embraced the villa.
Villa had replaced Matt Cash – reserved early and in difficulty – with Axel Disasi, but Kvaratskhelia exceeded him as if he was not there on the left side before delivering a stifling journey over Martinez and the roof of the net with the near post.
The Luis Enrique team has produced the best attacker football we have seen in Europe this season
Morgan Rogers had put Aston Villa in advance with an ending end after a counterattack
Rogers Gost had provoked prince William and George jubilant celebrations in the stands
The third goal of PSG leaves the team of UAI Emery requiring a dramatic turnaround at Villa Park
Could Martinez have done better? No goalkeeper likes to be beaten there. But before asking the Argentinian if he could have saved him, you may want to ask him if he really saw him. Speed and power were the key ingredients.
So Villa was now hung and it was like a long path at home. PSG was endemic, like liquid gold in blue.
Fend by Dembele in the 56th minute, the magnificent KVaratskhelia had a shot blocked by Disasi. He then put a George Best feigned on Rogers to run on the field. Martinez plunged low to repel the Achrat Hakimi shot that followed.
Villa was in the washing machine but almost succeeded. A minute about security, they seemed to have pulled the PSG bite. They hadn’t done it.
