Two Aston Villa players have been savaged with dismal 3/10 scores in L’Equipe’s notorious ratings after suffering defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
PSG left-back Nuno Mendes landed a devastating blow in stoppage time at the Parc des Princes to give his side 3-1 lead ahead of next week’s second leg at Villa Park, capping off an excellent comeback after Morgan Rogers scored for the visitors in the first half.
Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia also netted on the night for the French giants, each scoring superb individual goals to help PSG gain full control.
French football newspaper L’Equipe heaped praise on the PSG pair by handing them 8/10 and 7/10 scores respectively on the night, labelling Doue’s long-distance equaliser a ‘pure masterpiece’ and Kvaratskhelia’s performance a ‘feast for the eyes’.
While revelling in PSG’s success, the outlet blasted Aston Villa with a series of brutal ratings, with Jacob Ramsey and Matty Cash picking up scores of just 3/10.
Criticising Cash’s display, L’Equipe said: ‘The right-back had clearly been targeted as the weak point in Villa’s defense. And rightly so. Struggling from kickoff until his exit, he was unable to win a duel and showed signs of nervousness with the ball.’
Two Aston Villa players were savaged with dismal 3/10 scores in L’Equipe’s notorious ratings
Nuno Mendes netted late in Paris to hand his PSG side full control with a 3-1 win in the first leg
Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey (left) was blasted with a brutal 3/10 score by the French outlet
Cash, who was substituted by Unai Emery at half-time after being shown a yellow card in the 17th minute, was replaced by Axel Disasi — who was also handed a grim 3/10 off the bench.
Meanwhile, the newspaper wrote of how Ramsey ‘struggled to exist offensively’ and blamed him for the concession of Kvaratskhelia’s goal shortly after the break.
Unimpressed by Emery’s tactics, L’Equipe lacerated the Spanish boss with a 3/10 rating himself.
‘His team refused to play and was understandably punished. Furthermore, the Spanish coach failed to find any solutions to secure his team’s right wing,’ his rating read.
Marcus Rashford, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa were given just 4/10, while Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara, Pau Torres and Emiliano Martinez earned 5/10 ratings.
According to L’Equipe, Aston Villa’s best players on the night were goal-scorer Rogers and French left-back Lucas Digne, who each picked up 6/10 scores.
The front page of the newspaper on Thursday morning read, ‘Strokes of genius’, accompanied with a jubilant image of Doue and Kvaratskhelia embracing at the Parc des Princes.
Emery defiantly urged that his side have not lost belief ahead of the second leg at Villa Park next Tuesday, still confident that they can reach the Champions League semi-finals.
Villa right-back Matty Cash was given the same rating before his substitution at half time
Marcus Rashford was among those to receive 4/10 ratings after an ineffective performance
‘Strokes of genius’: L’Equipe’s front page revelled in Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
‘More or less the expectation I had before the match happened,’ he told TNT Sports after the game. ‘[There is] not a lot of difference between 2 and 3-1 as we will play at home next week.
‘It will still be a huge challenge for us but we can feel strong at home with our supporters. We needed to be defensively strong, lower than normal, but even when we were losing we had a free approach.
‘[There were] two shots from Morgan [Rogers] and one of Marco Asensio, the last goal, OK, but our mind is not changing a lot because we have to win at home now.’
‘The first half we had three or four chances to get in the box,’ he continued. ‘We knew before the match we needed to be clinical as well. We were in the first half but not second, we tried to show our power.
‘PSG like to keep possession, but today we were more in a low block, at home maybe we can change. Hopefully we can get more moments to keep our momentum and possession.
‘We are going to try and combat the result. We believe in Villa Park and that our players can give the performances.’
