Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Aston Villa: Doue, Kvaratskhelia and Mendes hand Les Parisiens sizeable advantage in Champions League last eight | OneFootball

Newly-crowned Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain took a huge step towards reaching the Champions League semi-finals thanks to Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

Both teams headed into the game in good form. The hosts were on a run of 16 victories from the last 17 matches, while the visitors were on a seven-game winning streak.

Currently enjoying an upturn in form since the turn of the year, Ousmane Dembele wasted no time taking a first pop at goal but skied his effort.

The Frenchman turned provider for Vitinha’s strike shortly afterwards which was well dealt with by Emiliano Martinez.

Dembele soon resumed his personal duel with Martinez, but the Villa keeper proved to be up to the task once again.

PSG continued to dominate the early stages, with Villa unable to gain a foothold on proceedings at the Parc des Princes.

However, the away side took the lead against the run of play 10 minutes from the half-time whistle when Youri Tielemans provided a sublime cross across the box for Morgan Rogers to tap into an empty net.

Les Parisiens remained calm despite going behind and restored parity four minutes later through Desire Doue, who provided one of the goals of the season with a long-range curler past Martinez.

Buoyed by his leveller, Doue continued to torment the Villa defence and nearly grabbed a second in the final stages of the first half.

PSG flew out of the blocks in the second half and needed just four minutes to get their noses in front.

After skipping past half-time substitute Axel Disasi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia unleashed a fierce left-footed shot that caught Martinez out at his near post.

Luis Enrique’s side sensed a chance to kill the game off as soon as possible and kept their foot on the gas in search of a two-goal cushion that nearly arrived via Achraf Hakimi’s low drive just shy of the hour mark.

Hakimi thought he had put his side 3-1 up on the 70th-minute mark when he latched on to a Kvaratskhelia through ball and finished through Martinez’s legs, only to be denied by an offside flag.

Rogers had his first bit of attacking involvement since giving Villa the lead as he drew a reasonably comfortable save from Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Substitute Marco Asensio had a left-footed shot deflected just wide, while Rogers failed to keep his attempt down in second-half stoppage time.

With almost the last kick of the game, PSG put themselves in a more favourable position to go through, thanks to a composed finish from Nuno Mendes.

Warren Zaire-Emery had one final bite at the cherry but was repelled by Martinez.

The two sides meet in the reverse fixture at Villa Park next Tuesday.