The Japan Times - Dembele stars again as PSG beat Brest in Champions League play-off first leg

PSG were overwhelming favourites coming into this tie against opponents who had never taken part in European competition before this season, and there seems little prospect of Brest recovering from this loss in next week's second leg.

Vitinha opened the scoring for PSG at the Stade de Roudourou in Guingamp with a penalty just before the midway point in the first half, and Dembele swept in a second on the stroke of half-time before netting again on 66 minutes.

The French international forward now has 23 goals for the season, including 18 in 11 appearances over the last two months.

Indeed he has 10 goals in just the last four games, a run which includes a hat-trick against Brest in Ligue 1 only 10 days ago.

He is irresistible just now, and Luis Enrique's side are unbeatable at the moment against French opponents, against whom they have not lost since last May.

The teams will meet again in the return leg of this knockout phase play-off tie next Wednesday in Paris, with the winners advancing to a last-16 showdown with either Liverpool or Barcelona.

Assuming they make it through, PSG will feel they are capable of beating either of those sides on current form.

- Paris too strong -

Brest had not defeated the Parisians in any competition in 40 years, since January 1985, and had lost 17 of the last 18 meetings between the teams.

Once again hosting a Champions League game an hour away from Brest itself in Guingamp, they nearly got lucky early on, when an attempted clearance by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma struck the face of forward Ludovic Ajorque and almost ricocheted into the net.

However, PSG were handed the chance to go ahead when a Dembele shot struck the arm of Pierre Lees-Melou inside the Brest box in the 17th minute.

The Bosnian referee had to come across to check the pitchside monitor before pointing to the spot, and Vitinha then stepped up to send goalkeeper Marco Bizot the wrong way with the penalty.

Brest did not let their heads go down and Abdallah Sima had two big chances to equalise, first being denied by Willian Pacho's great recovery tackle and then heading against the far post from the resulting corner.

Achraf Hakimi almost scored an own goal too, but instead Paris struck again just before the break, majestically playing their way out of Brest's press and breaking away.

Hakimi fed Dembele, who cut in from the right and beat the goalkeeper at his near post.

Brest then saw Sima hit a post at the start of the second half, but the visitors continued to look so dangerous.

Desire Doue had the ball in the net only for his effort to be ruled out for a tight offside in the build-up, while Dembele fired wide from a good position.

Dembele did then strike again almost midway through the second half, trying to feed Bradley Barcola and then seeing the ball break back to him before shooting past Bizot with the aid of a deflection.

K.Tanaka--JT