The brutal reality of the latter stages of the Champions League hit Aston Villa like a brick when they travelled to Paris to take on PSG on Wednesday night.
Villa, who did take the lead through Morgan Rogers, were beaten 3-1 by a dominant Paris Saint-Germain side, managed by Luis Enrique, who had some terrific individuals on display at the top end of the pitch.
The effervescent Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue, and Ousmane Dembele put on a masterclass in front of their home supporters, with all three of them involved in at least one of the three goals.
Because of the quality of the PSG attackers, several Aston Villa players endured a rough evening in France. One of those was Axel Disasi, after he was brought on at half-time.
Axel Disasi's awful performance against PSG
The versatile defender, who is a centre-back by trade, came on to replace Matty Cash at the break at right-back and was almost immediately sent to the shops for PSG’s second goal in the 49th minute.
Kvaratskhelia, who is a test for any full-back, showed unbelievable footwork to jink past the Frenchman before blasting a finish into the top corner of Emi Martinez’s near post.
In his 45 minutes on the pitch, Disasi managed two tackles, one interception, one block, and one key pass, whilst he also won half (2/4) of his ground duels, in what was a solid display outside of being brilliantly beaten by the Georgian magician.
Player ratings courtesy of Sofascore
The 27-year-old defender, who is on loan from Chelsea, was far from the worst player on the pitch for Unai Emery, though…
Aston Villa's worst player against PSG
While Disasi struggled, it was Matty Cash who was even worse than him in the first half.
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The Poland international was actually selected ahead of the Chelsea loanee to start at right-back against Kvaratskhelia and had to be withdrawn from the action at half-time after a dismal opening 45 minutes in Paris.
GOAL awarded him a player rating of just 4/10 and wrote that he was a ‘red card waiting to happen’, after his early yellow card for a foul on the former Napoli forward.
The English-born defender must be brutally binned from the starting XI by Emery after his poor showing in the opening 45 minutes, as Disasi outperformed him off the bench – despite his part in the second PSG goal.
Minutes
45
45
Pass accuracy
50%
69%
Key passes
0
1
Tackles + interceptions
3
3
Duels won
3/8
2/5
Possession lost
9x
5x
Fouls committed
4
0
As you can see in the table above, the 4/10 full-back was incredibly wasteful with the ball at his feet and offered nothing at the top end of the pitch, whilst Disasi – at least – created one chance for the team in the second half.
As mentioned by GOAL, Cash was also walking a disciplinary tightrope with four fouls committed and a yellow card to his name in the first 45 minutes, as he was forced to foul Kvaratskhelia, who got the better of him, on several occasions.
With their respective performances in mind, Emery must drop the former Nottingham Forest star from the starting line-up to bring Disasi in at right-back from the start next time out.
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