PARIS :Nuno Mendes’ late goal was a fair reward for Paris St Germain’s total domination of their 3-1 win against Aston Villa in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.
Mendes netted two minutes into added time after the Ligue 1 champions had taken the lead through goals by Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia following Morgan Rogers’ shock opener.
“I think the goal in the last minute reflects or rewards what we’ve done in the previous 89-90 minutes,” PSG manager Luis Enrique told a press conference.
A two-goal advantage is a comfortable cushion for possession-obsessed PSG, but Luis Enrique refused to see further than the return leg next Tuesday.
“We’re not going to go there to speculate. We don’t know how to play by speculating. I’ve never speculated with any team, much less with a team of this quality,” the Spaniard explained.
“If we want to reach the semi-finals, we need to go there to win the game, we need to go there and hurt the opponent. We’ll have more space than here.”
PSG’s quick play in the transitions might help them in Birmingham as Villa will need to make up for their disadvantage and cannot be content with sitting down and waiting.
“Aston Villa will have to attack more than they did here, which I find interesting as long as we can be at the level,” said Luis Enrique.
“Again, it will be a very exciting and difficult match. I have no doubt it’s going to be tough, like it was at Anfield, but again, the word ‘speculate’ doesn’t exist in our vocabulary.”
His Villa counterpart Unai Emery, however, does not believe the third goal changes much.
“With this goal it is still more or less the same because we need to win next week. I believe Villa Park is our home,” he said.
“Hopefully we can feel stronger, and try to have our moments more than we had today. We needed eventually to be compact, to be disciplined, and we were. But the result is not ideal, it’s the worst (result).
“But there are still 90 minutes to play.”
