Spanish Press Spotlights Barcelona, PSG Similarities After Impressive First Leg Wins | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1 in the first leg at Parc des Princes on Wednesday night, flipping a one-goal deficit with three straight goals to take control of the tie.

While PSG’s quality eventually shone through, some might wonder if Unai Emery had a hand in how things unraveled for Aston Villa. After the visitors opened the scoring, Desire Doue responded quickly to level things up before halftime.

That equalizer seemed to shift the momentum. Early in the second half, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia fired PSG in front, and the hosts never looked back.

Nuno Mendes capped things off with a late goal to give PSG a two-goal cushion going into the second leg.

Are Barcelona and PSG playing a similar style of football?

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Elsewhere, Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 win over Borussia Dortmund at home. Speaking on El Larguero, Jesús Gallego pointed out that Barcelona and PSG are now playing with similar styles.

“When we praise this team, it’s the convincing idea that Flick has brought into the locker room, that he has managed to get all those players to believe in that style, and then there’s a youthful energy to develop it—an energy that is matched with ambition because there are a lot of players who haven’t won anything and are hungry. That’s fundamental at Barça, and I think PSG are playing in a very similar way.

They are two very similar styles—very dominant, very overwhelming, very suffocating for their opponents. I think, for example, both teams are full of young players who don’t yet have a huge reputation or status… If we set Lamine aside, of course. But there are young players on these teams—like Balde, Kounde—who aren’t at the elite level yet, but they fly. And I think that’s the key for both teams.”

Gallego notes that while PSG and Barcelona play a similar style, he states that the Parisians are a deeper side when needing to rotate their squad.

“My only doubt about Barça—because they have some very demanding matches coming up—is that when you see Eric García, Fermín, and Gavi in the lineup, for example, the team clearly loses control. For instance, I think Paris Saint-Germain has a deeper squad than Barcelona.”

Both sides have commanding leads heading into the second leg; there’s a chance they could clash in the final after meeting last year in the quarterfinals, a tie in which PSG came from behind to eliminate Barcelona.