𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

As we approach the business end of the season, the Champions League begins in earnest and two top talents teeter on the edge of greatness: Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha wouldn’t have been high on many people’s list of Ballon d’Or contenders last August, but this duo enter the quarter-finals as the two favourites for football’s most illustrious individual award.

And what further links this unlikely pairing – now among the leading men for two of the continent’s best sides – is that they are in the midst of finally delivering on the promising signs from earlier in their careers.

PSG forward, Desire Doue, spoke ahead of the match and claimed that luck played no part in either team getting to this stage of the competition.

He said: “When you reach this stage of the competition, there is no luck involved.

“So if Aston Villa are here, it means they deserve to be. So no talk of favourites.

“Villa are a good team with good players. We have to be serious from the kick-off to the final whistle and in the second leg too.”

This just the second Uefa Champions League quarter-final between French and English sides in the last eight campaigns.

The first was between Manchester City and Lyon with City winning 1-3 in the only leg in 2019-20.

Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa will meet for the first time in European competition.

PSG will be the favourites to win with their home advantage but Villa have won the European Cup previously in their history.

It should be a good contest.

Luis Enrique also spoke about PSG’s opponents tonight and how he sees similarities between Unai Emery’s team and his won.

He said: “[Unai Emery] is a great coach. Aston Villa are a great team. They have come on in the last two years thanks to Unai Emery.

“They look like us, with lots of versatile players. It’s difficult to know who is going to play, especially after their winter transfer window where they have strengthened in a good way.

“It will be an open and difficult tie for both teams.”

“In football, there are no such things as favourites.” said PSG head coach Luis Enrique when asked if his side were the favourites to win this quarter-final.

He added: “There are eight teams who are in the quarter-finals because they deserve it.

“We will need to do what we have to do and deserve to win on the field.”

Two additional spots in the Champions League are available to the leagues in the countries with the highest Uefa co-efficients, with countries earning co-efficient points based on how their sides perform.

A win adds two points, while a draw adds one, with all the points earned by each club added up and divided by the number of clubs that league has participating in Europe.

Aston Villa have been one of the more impressive sides in the competition so far but face a huge step up in level for this quarter-final.

Should Unai Emery’s men come out of this test with a positive outcome they cannot be ruled out of progressing even further in the competition but PSG have more than enough attacking quality to hurt them, especially with such a strong record at home.

For Aston Villa, PSG loanee Marco Asensio is set to face his old club having score eight goals in 11 appearances for Villa. Leon Bailey is an injury doubt though has been seen in full training and could feature at some point in the game.

But, Ross Barkley will be absent and Emery has to decide who to select in midfield with John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara both fit to start.

Predicted Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; McGinn, Asensio, Rogers; Rashford

Lee Kang-in is currently sidelined for PSG and the hosts will be without their captain, Marquinhos, for the first leg as he serves a suspension.

Luis Enrique rested his big guns in Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele for the title winning match against Angers and they are expected to return to the starting line-up.

Predicted PSG XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Beraldo, Pacho, Mendes; Neves, Vitinha, Ruiz; Kvaratskhelia, Dembele, Barcola