A wonder goal from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia upstaged a brilliant curling shot from teammate Désiré Doué as Paris Saint-Germain beat Aston Villa 3-1 in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday.
The pair of sumptuous strikes left PSG coach Luis Enrique raving about both players after a game in which his team took a major step toward the semifinals.
Between Doué’s goal and his teammates, there was no doubt, however, that Kvaratskhelia’s was the best of the night.
“For a coach like me it’s so great to have a player like [Kvaratskhelia], with his mentality. He scored a brilliant goal,” Luis Enrique said about Kvaratskhelia. “We tried to sign him last summer and it didn’t work out.
“We signed him [in January] when we didn’t really expect to. He’s got everything to be part of our project.”
Kvaratskhelia sprinted down the left from just over the halfway line and then mesmerized Villa’s defense in a blizzard of quick feet and superb balance.
Advancing at pace with the ball seemingly glued to his right foot, he then wrong-footed defender Axel Disasi with a sudden change of direction, before rolling the ball onto his left foot in one smooth motion and blasting an unstoppable shot over the head of Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.
After Morgan Rogers gave Villa the lead in the 35th minute, the 19-year-old Doué drew PSG level four minutes later with the 12th goal of his breakthrough season.
Kvaratskhelia put PSG in front four minutes after the break and left back Nuno Mendes added a third goal in stoppage time with a fine finish of his own.
“I think the result reflects the difference between us and them,” said PSG coach Luis Enrique, whose side has greater firepower and showed more of a threat going forward. “Our objective is to keep the ball and be aggressive in attack.”
The return leg is next Tuesday at Villa Park.
Kvaratskhelia’s goal was exactly the kind of effort that earned the flying Georgia winger the nickname “Kvaradona” when he was playing for Napoli, in reference to soccer maestro Diego Maradona — the Italian club’s greatest ever player — and prompted PSG coach Luis Enrique to spend €70 million (then $72 million) on him in the winter transfer window.
Shortly after Kvaratskhelia’s goal, Martínez made a great save low to his right against Achraf Hakimi’s powerful shot as PSG poured forward looking for a third goal.
Villa was at this stage of the competition for the first time since 1983 and dealt well with early pressure before taking the lead with a well-worked goal.
Bustling captain John McGinn won the ball in midfield and advanced before picking out Marcus Rashford, the forward who scored a stoppage-time winner here for Manchester United six years ago. Rashford fed Youri Tielemans overlapping down the left and he pinged a cross to the back post where Rogers was left unmarked to tap in.
The lead was brief as Doué picked up the ball on the left of the penalty area, skipped past two players and curled the ball into the top right corner.
“He’s got everything he needs to become a great player,” Luis Enrique said of Doué. “He really doesn’t need much space to dribble.”
Martínez played long balls early on to test PSG’s defense, but he was soon called into action with a flying save from Ousmane Dembélé’s angled strike in the eighth minute.
He couldn’t do much about the goals that beat him, however, with Nuno Mendes showing a forward’s touch when he latched onto Dembélé’s pass, cut inside a defender and deftly guided the ball in.
“We’ve watched their last few games and know how deadly and sharp they’ve been,” Rogers said. “They’ve put the world on notice now.”
But Villa coach Unai Emery believes he can still eliminate the club he coached from 2016-18.
“I believe we will win next week,” Emery said. “Villa Park is our home.”
