Rio Ferdinand claims Chelsea loanee didn’t want to be on the pitch against PSG

Rio Ferdinand has heaped praise on PSG’s wealth of attacking talent after the side’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa and believes Axel Disasi probably wanted to be brought off the field in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.

Morgan Rogers finished off a superb team move to put Villa in front against the run of play in the 35th minute, but the hosts found an immediate equaliser through Desire Doue, who curled an exquisite strike past Emiliano Martinez from range.

PSG flew out of the blocks in the second period and a pair of superb strikes from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes gave the Ligue 1 champions a deserved two-goal cushion ahead of next week’s meeting at Villa Park.

Villa head coach Unai Emery opted to bring Matty Cash off in place of Chelsea loanee Disasi at the halfway stage, with the former on a booking after an early foul on Kvaratskhelia.

But Villa’s struggles continued against the dangerous Kvaratskhelia and Disasi was turned inside out as the Georgian lit up the Parc des Princes to give the hosts the lead for the first time on the night in the 49th minute.

‘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,’ ex-Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand said on TNT Sports of PSG’s second goal.

‘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.’

PSG teams in recent years have been accused of being an incoherent collection of stars and egos, rather than a team driving towards one goal.

But Luis Enrique’s men have proven their resilience and togetherness on the biggest stage this season – and Ferdinand believes they are now the favourites to lift the trophy for the first time in their history.

‘As much as we’ve been sitting there, blown away by the goals we saw and the moments of skill and brilliance from the PSG players, I thought what was impressive, if not more, was their ability to really get the ball back, win it back,’ Ferdinand added.

‘They played with an authority there of a team that have won this tournament many times before, but they haven’t.

‘It looks like a team that know how to get the best out of each individual player and really, really dominate opposition players man-to-man but also as a collective.

‘I have them as favourites right now, the way I see it. The way I saw them manhandle Liverpool over two legs and the way I’ve seen them dominate this game here.

‘They absolutely took this tie away from Aston Villa in terms of performance and authority. They’re going into the next game as absolute favourites.’

Ferdinand expects Villa to come out fighting in the second leg, but fears they could be picked apart by this ‘different PSG team’.

‘The big problem that Aston Villa have got now is they’re going to go to Villa Park and their fans, rightly so, are going to get behind that team and they’re going to push them on and expect them to be on the front foot,’ he continued.

‘Against this team going on the front foot, the spaces open up. You saw the last goal there: the little spaces, a little glimmer of a space to play through and they get it through.

‘This team is a real, real tough proposition for this Villa team. It’s not over by any means. Villa have got players that can hurt this PSG team and they’ve got a manager who knows his way around Europe and winning trophies.

‘But this is a different PSG team to any we’ve seen in this competition.’

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