Dazzling Doue sparks PSG as Villa learn the hard way

Now it is Unai Emery who needs the remontada. As he knows from bitter experience, Paris Saint-Germain have lost leads in European second legs before, and bigger ones than this. The verdict may be that Aston Villa’s damage-limitation exercise almost succeeded. Particularly in the four, heady minutes when they were in the lead. Fast forward 15 minutes and PSG were one ahead.

- RICHARD JOLLY

But then Nuno Mendes provided the coup de grace, the third goal PSG fully deserved. Villa have a colossal task to overturn a deficit next week. Beaten by the youthful brio of Desire Doue and the idiosyncratic virtuosity of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, any comeback would have to come at the expense of a PSG side staking their claim to be Europe’s finest.

Back in Paris, Emery had a long 90 minutes from his vantage point at the edge of a vast technical area. Villa had organisation, determination and the reflexes of Emi Martinez. They restricted PSG to three goals, a slight return for 27 shots and 76 per cent of possession. It was a statement performance, if not a statement scoreline from Luis Enrique's side.

But it was illuminated by two faces of the new PSG, recent arrivals who scored wonderful solo goals in differing fashions. Doue delivered the long-range strike, Kvaratskhelia the solo run with the emphatic finish. Doue sparkled, with the fearlessness of youth and the skills that suggest stardom beckons. Kvaratskhelia scored with explosive brilliance: the skill of an old-fashioned winger allied with the pace of the modern athlete.