Rio Ferdinand claims Aston Villa star was not ‘far off asking to come off’ vs PSG after ‘nasty’ moment
Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand reckons one Aston Villa star would have considered “asking to come off” against Paris Saint-Germain.
Aston Villa faced Ligue Un champions PSG in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night and lost 3-1 in France.
Morgan Rogers rounded off a great team move to put Aston Villa in front against the run of play, but Desire Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes netted to turn the game around.
Kvaratskhelia netted a superb solo goal as he dribbled past Axel Disasi – who joined Aston Villa on loan from Chelsea in January – before firing past Emiliano Martinez.
On this goal, Ferdinand claims Kvaratskhelia exposed Disasi, who played out of position at right-back after replacing Matty Cash at half-time.
“Kvaratskhelia is owning the situation and the roll was just nasty. Other than laying him out on the floor, he just eliminates him beautifully. It’s the silkiness,” Ferdinand said on TNT Sports.
READ: Aston Villa lose to PSG while the rest of us lose to Rio Ferdinand and TNT Sports
“This is [Chris] Waddle reincarnated. It’s a wonderful finish with the left foot and it’s probably the only place he scores this goal.
“He made Disasi look like a centre-back playing out of position at right-back.
“In the first ten minutes [of him coming on], I looked at Disasi and was thinking: if he could ask to come off right now, he wouldn’t be far off doing it.
“It’s so difficult. They were flying down that side consistently all the time and making it really difficult for him.”
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Post-match, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admitted PSG’s third goal was “disappointing”.
“The last goal is a little bit disappointing for us because it was in the last minute but it is not changing much, or our belief,” Emery admitted.
“It is not changing a lot because at 2-1 we were thinking, in the next match, we have to play to win. With 3-1, it is still the same. We need to win the next match, and not only [score] one goal but [at least] two.
“We were close to getting a good result. At the end with this goal it is still more or less the same because we still need to win next week. Villa Park is our home and hopefully we can be stronger and win more of our duels. They showed their power and individual qualities.
“The result is not the best but it’s not the worst. There are still 90 minutes to play, a second leg, and maybe extra time.”
