PLAYER RATINGS | Stuttgart 1-4 PSG: Dembélé hat-trick sends Parisians through | OneFootball

After a stirring second-half comeback in their previous European outing, Paris Saint-Gerrmain could only have crashed out of the Champions League with a catastrophically unlikely set of final-matchday results. Luis Enrique’s men nevertheless travelled to Stuttgart with a point to prove, having stuttered through the majority of their continental campaign last autumn.

It was the main architect of last week’s remontada in Bradley Barcola who would open the scoring after just five minutes. In what was effectively PSG’s first foray forward of the game, the French international headed home from close range at the back post after Ousmane Dembélé’s corner was spectaculaly flicked over the top of the crowd by Désiré Doué.

From then on, the Parisian attacks would be relentless, with an aggressively high line also blunting any counter-attacks from the Germans. Barcola was again involved as the visitors doubled their lead on the twenty-minute mark, with Dembélé converting from close range after another piercing run from the former Lyon man down the left.

Désiré Doué came within centimetres of emulating Dembélé from a similar Barcola cross, but was be denied by a last-ditch reflex save on the line from Fabian Bredlow. The goalkeeper would nevertheless be beaten for the third time minutes later, as Dembélé once again made the most of Stuttgart’s inexplicably high line, beating Bredlow with a powerful shot from the right.

The former Barcelona forward’s newfound efficiency in front of goal showed no sign of letting up in the second half. After combining with Achraf Hakimi on the edge of the box, Dembélé completed his first hat-trick since his Rennes days with a curled finish into the top-right corner.

The intensity of PSG’s forays forward would drop somewhat in the final half-hour, and even more so once Barcola was taken off. Führich would pull one back for the already-eliminated hosts, beating Pacho to Mittelstädt’s low cross to beat Donnarumma, in what would be the only real blot in the Ecuadorian defender’s copybook.

In any case, with eight goals in the space of seven days, Luis Enrique’s men have offered a resounding response to what were growing concerns of an early European exit. Far from their all-too-customary springtime collapse, Les Parisiens appear to be hitting their stride in time to challenge for the competition that their project is centred on.

Paris Saint-Germain player ratings

Gianluigi Donnarumma, 7

Achraf Hakimi, 6

Marquinhos, 7

Willian Pacho, 7

Lucas Hernandez, 6

Warren Zaïre-Emery, 6

João Neves, 7

Vitinha, 7

Désiré Doué, 6

Ousmane Dembélé, 9 – The French international continued his impressive scoring run with a first hat-trick since 2016. His piercing runs, along with Barcola’s, were the driving force of PSG’s unrelenting attacking threat, although the imprecise final balls did begin to creep back into his game in the final half hour. A perfomance which stands in stark contrast to his first trip to Germany this season.

Bradley Barcola, 8

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin – reporting from Stuttgart