Aston Villa suffered defeat in their Champions League quarter-final first leg away from home against Paris Saint-Germian on Wednesday night.
It was a disappointing night at the office for Unai Emery’s side, who defended with lots of heart throughout but ultimately could not stop the French giants from scoring three goals, running out 3-1 winners.
It was a game filled with high-quality finishes across the board from both sides. Two of those strikes came from PSG’s wide pair of Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who were driving at the Villans’ defence nonstop throughout the game. It is fair to say they struggled to contain on the night.
Aston Villa’s struggles against Doue and Kvaratskhelia
Villa’s defenders might not have a tougher task this season than dealing with Doue and Kvaratskhelia. The pair were electric and made life tough to cope with for Villa, with both players getting on the scoresheet.
Doue’s strike was an excellent one, cutting inside on his right foot and curling an effort into the top right corner past Martinez.
As for Kvaratskhelia’s, well, you could argue it was even better. He picked up the ball inside the Villa half, carried it into their box before selling Axel Disasi a dummy by rolling his foot over the ball and blasting it home at Emi Martinez’s near post.
Journalist Mohamed Salad said they are the reason “why you pay to watch football games” which is rather apt. He made things incredibly stressful for Disasi and Matty Cash, the Villans’ rightbacks on the night. The latter was booked and taken off at half-time, before Disasi, who replaced the Poland star, was rolled for Kvaratskhelia’s goal.
Player ratings courtesy of Sofascore
Incredibly, the West Midlands outfit have a player worth even more than both.
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The Villa player worth more than Doue and Kvaratskhelia
On big Champions League nights, you need your star players to stand up for the count, and that is certainly what Doue and Kvaratskhelia did.
Coincidentally, it’s also what England international Morgan Rogers did at the Parc des Princes too. The England international, who is a “wonderful”, in the words of Glenn Hoddle, got his side’s only goal in Paris.
What a strike it was, too, adding to the list of high-quality goals on show. The former Manchester Cty academy star got on the end of a wonderful team move, started by John McGinn, who won the ball back in midfield.
He fired it along the ground to Marcus Rashford, who played a perfectly weighted pass to Youri Tielemans. The Belgian fired the ball across the box, and Rogers tapped home.
It was a brilliant goal from Unai Emery’s side, and it is no surprise that Rogers was the man to cap off such a wonderful move. He now has 14 goals and 11 assists in 45 appearances this term in the famous Claret and Blue shirt.
When looking at Rogers’ underlying numbers courtesy of Sofascore, you can see just how well he has played across all competitions. For example, the England star has played 62 key passes and 90 successful dribbles.
Key passes
62
1.5
Dribbles completed
90
2.2
Big chances created
18
0.4
Tackles and interceptions
51
1.3
Expected goal involvements
14.52xGI
0.35xGI
Football Transfers now believe he is worth more than both Doue and Kvaratskhelia. The attacker, who was born in Halesowen, is worth around £68m. In contrast, via, Football Transfers, Doue is worth a £53m, and Kvaratskhelia is valued at £60m. Not bad indeed.
Impressively, that valuation is more than any of his teammates at Villa Park and if anything, that just highlights the importance of Rogers and the excellent investment that Villa made.
They paid just £15m last January to sign him from Middlesbrough, a brilliant signing.
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