Aston Villa were 75 seconds away from something quite okay, quite satisfactory here. Outplayed, often overwhelmed and always second best, Unai Emery and his players were nevertheless in this game at 2-1 down and therefore in this tie as we moved on through three minutes of added time.
A one-goal deficit to take back to Villa Park for next week’s second leg would, given the way the game had gone, have bred hope and optimism and a sense of anticipation. There would have been talk of a famous European night in the offing.
But then it all changed. A sharp pass through the heart of the Villa defence by Ousmane Dembele sent Nuno Mendes clear and a neat side step round goalkeeper Emi Martinez was all it took to deliver goal number three. So a tight tie suddenly became a story that sees PSG with one foot in the semi-final.
Villa can't say they were hard done by. PSG were fabulous and exhilarating to watch whenever they poured forward with the ball.
This, at times, was less a football match and more an exercise in survival for the Premier League team. Villa’s defensive line – often numbering as many as six – stood like a white wall desperately trying to repel PSG’s crashing waves of blue.
PSG’s Georgian wide player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was absolutely spellbinding while the French teenager Desire Doue was not far behind him. They scored the two PSG goals either side of half-time that drove the French champions in to the lead after Morgan Rogers had somehow given Villa an advantage with a rare attack against the head in the 35th minute.
Those two PSG goals were fabulous. Breathtaking, in fact. Had there only been two of them, we could have talked about them fondly but now it’s different. Goal number three, rather less spectacular, may just have done for Emery and his team.
PSG tend to treat every Champions League home game like it’s the last one they will ever play. The sense of occasion is deliberate and can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it’s tempting to wonder whether it works for or against the French champions.
Here, after a pre-game light display that felt like a mini-opening ceremony, Enrique’s team shot from the blocks like sprinters. This is a tie destined to lasted 180 minutes at least but – just as they had against Liverpool in the last sixteen – PSG looked desperate to win it within half an hour.
The home team were quick and expansive and skilful. They carried a threat that was both direct and subtle at the same time. Villa defended deep – often in a line of five as Boubacar Kamara dropped in to help his central defenders – as danger came at them from all angles.
PSG probably should have had a penalty in the seventh minute as Kamara tripped Kvaratskhelia. The PSG forward went down but then, rather strangely, bounced back up again. Play was waved on and Ousmane Dembele drove a shot high towards goal and Emi Martinez touched it over.
Martinez in the Villa goal was happy to play the villain. He has World Cup final history with the French and was booed throughout his warm-up. Once the game started, he was busy as PSG probed and poked, trying to work their way to goal and occasionally shooting from distance.
Overloads down both sides troubled Villa who for a while just couldn’t get out. Kvaratskhelia, the Georgian, was a constant nuisance as indeed was the central player Vitinha and, increasingly, goalscorer Doue.
Villa had Marcus Rashford playing as a centre forward with John McGinn supporting. The plan, presumably, was to stretch PSG on the break. Villa struggled to execute that plan but then, after 35 minutes, they managed to do it and they scored with their first real attack.
McGinn was the architect, robbing Nuno Mendes of possession like a street mugger in the French half. His lateral pass right to left to Rashford opened up space and when Youri Tielemans was fed on the overlap, his low cross was converted from six yards at far post by Rogers.
Liverpool did this to PSG here as well but their goal came much later. Here, PSG had time to respond and did so almost immediately. Martinez fumbled a shot on to his post and conceded a corner and when the ball was recycled over to the near side, Doue curled a quite special goal in off the underside of the bar from 19 yards with his right foot.
It was a fabulous goal and the 19-year-old almost scored again four minutes later, finding space to work Martinez above his head and then driving another shot over. As we reached half-time, normal service had very much been resumed.
There was to be no let up either. In fact PSG’s football in the early stages of the second half was even better. Enrique’s team were sensational in producing some of the best attacking football we have seen anywhere in Europe this season.
The goal they scored in the 49th minute was quite stunning, eclipsing even Doue’s effort the other side of the break.
Villa had replaced Matt Cash – booked early and struggling – with Axel Disasi at half-time but Kvaratskhelia ran at him and past like he wasn’t there down the left side before delivering a smothering left foot drive high above Martinez and in to the foot of the net at the near post.
Could Martinez have done better? No keeper likes to be beaten there. But before asking the Argentinean if he could have saved it, you may wish to ask him if he actually saw it. Speed and power were the key ingredients.
So Villa were now hanging on in Paris and it felt like a long way home. PSG were rampant, like liquid gold in blue. Hard to predict, almost impossible to stop.
Kvaratskhelia was just magnificent. What a talent. Fed by Dembele in the 56th minute, his shot was blocked by Disasi. He then put a George Best feint and body swerve on Rogers to race upfield and start a move that saw Martinez dive low to his right to push away a shot from Achraf Hakimi.