PSG v Aston Villa Match Result
Are PSG coming to the boil at exactly the right time? Although they only ended up beating Liverpool on penalties, nobody can argue that they didn’t deserve to come through the tie. They were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to the Reds at Parc des Princes after bombarding the opposition goal for the majority of the game. An early Ousmane Dembele strike then levelled matters on Merseyside before the tie was won on spot kicks.
Luis Enrique has built an excellent team capable of winning the competition and they have no domestic concerns considering they are twenty-one points clear of the competition in Ligue 1. It means that they can give the Champions League their sole focus and they have won eleven and drawn two of their thirteen home matches this term.
Aside from that 1-0 defeat at home to Liverpool, the French side have won their last fourteen games in all competitions. There was recently a 6-1 success away to St-Etienne and you can be sure that some of the leading stars will be given a rest for the match against Angers which takes place a few days before this first leg encounter.
Is this the end of the road for Aston Villa? Perhaps Unai Emery has a few tricks up his sleeve and the Spaniard has previously enjoyed European success with Sevilla and Villarreal, often against the odds. The English side enjoyed a 6-1 aggregate victory against Club Brugge although this was something of a favourable draw and this will be a much tougher test.
However, the visitors have landed a victory in five consecutive matches since being heavily defeated at Crystal Palace. This includes a 1-0 success at Brentford although the absence of Marco Asensio will be an issue considering that the Spaniard’s parent club is Paris Saint-Germain.
Goals Under/Over
For many punters, Over 2.5 Goals will be regarded as a decent bet and the bookies make this a 63% likelihood. Although only a single goal was scored in both games between Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool, the majority of PSG games see the net bulge at least three times and they are clearly capable of covering the line themselves in this first leg tie.
After all, we only have to cast our mind back to the 4-2 victory over Manchester City during the group stage of the competition to realise that goals could be on the cards here. It’s also worth noting that they created enough scoring chances to beat Liverpool twice over and would have scored plenty if goalkeeper Alisson hadn’t been in such stunning form.
Plenty of Villa games also cover the 2.5 goals line and their defence is not renowned for keeping clean sheets. They played out a 2-2 draw with Liverpool in February before ensuing games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace also yielded three goals and five goals respectively.
BTTS
The Over 2.5 Goals quote is a lot shorter than the BTTS Yes one. The bookies make it marginally more likely that both teams will find the net than at least one team will fail to score, although one does wonder how many scoring chances will be created by Aston Villa. They will be aware of Paris Saint-Germain’s attacking prowess and their tactics could be tweaked accordingly.
PSG are likely to dominate the ball throughout the contest and let’s not forget that they had ten shots on target against Liverpool. It’s also worth remembering that the Reds only registered one shot on goal and that was Harvey Elliott with the classic smash and grab, although it also indicates that Villa might make heavy weather of chance creation.
We think that BTTS No might offer more value. A bloodless PSG win could be on the cards and you can actually get attractive odds that we see the Ligue 1 champions claim a victory along keeping a clean sheet. On the flip side, it has been ten games and counting where Villa have found the net at least once and that might play into the thinking of some punters.
First Goalscorer
Ousmane Dembele was the man on the end of a chance at Anfield and the French forward has scored an impressive twenty-one Ligue 1 goals this term. He’s benefitting from being part of a dynamic front three that also includes Bradley Barcola and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, with that trio likely to be a handful for a Villa team who don’t keep a huge number of clean sheets in the Premier League.
Desire Doue is also a class act and the forward scored twice at St-Etienne while he also bagged a penalty at Anfield in the shootout in the previous round. It’s also worth noting that Goncalo Ramos has found his scoring touch in recent encounters, finding the net against Denmark when representing Portugal before converting a spot kick against St-Etienne.
As for Villa, Marcus Rashford scored a famous winner for Manchester United at this stadium and the former Manchester United man will relish the challenge this game provides. However, Ollie Watkins probably the most likely scorer, closely followed by Morgan Rogers who can certainly operate well against any high-calibre opponent.