PSG winger Barcola has raised his game since Kvaratskhelia’s arrival

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This article was published 19/02/2025 (593 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARIS (AP) — Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s arrival at Paris Saint-Germain has certainly brought the best out of winger Bradley Barcola in the Champions League.

Barcola scored one goal, added one assist and played a part in the third goal as PSG routed Brest 7-0 to advance to the round of 16 with a resounding 10-0 aggregate win.

He might have done even more damage but was taken off with the score 3-0 and the match already safe on a night where PSG became the first team to have seven different scorers in a Champions League game.

That seemed to please PSG coach Luis Enrique almost as much as the result itself, given how much he has tried to hammer home the message of teamwork over the individual since the end of PSG’s Galactico era.

“It’s something that hasn’t happened before in the Champions League. It shows the mindset of our team,” the former Barcelona coach said. “If there are seven different scorers, that means each player has seen a teammate in a better position than them, that’s why we scored so many.”

PSG fell one short of equaling the record eight-goal margin set when Liverpool beat Besiktas 8-0 in 2007 and Real Madrid did the same to Malmo in 2015.

Since Kvaratskhelia joined from Napoli in mid-January, the 22-year-old Barcola has now scored three times in four Champions League games having failed to score at all in the competition before then.

Because Enrique’s new-look attack also features exciting 19-year-old forward Désiré Doué and clinical finisher Gonçalo Ramos, it meant Barcola had to deliver.

He did so with the equalizing goal in the 4-2 win against Manchester City — just five days after Kvaratskhelia had joined — and then opened the scoring in a 4-1 win at Stuttgart the following week which sealed PSG’s place in the playoffs.

The speedy winger put PSG ahead against Brest in the 20th minute when he latched onto a long ball over the top from Spain midfielder Fabián Ruiz, cut inside defender Massadio Haïdara with his right foot and clipped the ball inside the post with his left.

Barcola then deftly flicked on a cross for Kvaratskhelia to slide in the second goal from a tight angle at the back post in the 39th. It was the Georgia winger’s first goal for PSG in the competition since joining for a reported 70 million euros ($72 million).

Barcola combined with Ruiz for Vitinha to drive in the third goal from the edge of the penalty area, after which Enrique gave Barcola and Ousmane Dembélé a breather with Doué and Ramos coming on and scoring.

Nuno Mendes and Senny Mayulu also netted.

PSG faces a far harder-looking match next against either six-time champion Liverpool or five-time winner Barcelona.

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Brest returns to mid-table anonymity in Ligue 1 after its first-ever European competition ended with a miserable run of four straight defeats and 15 goals conceded.

It was also Brest’s third consecutive loss to PSG this month alone, with the other a 5-2 reverse in Ligue 1, and fourth this season after losing the other league game 3-1.

Midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou did not mince his words after Wednesday’s heavy defeat.

“We knew it was mission impossible (before the return leg),” he told broadcaster Canal Plus. “But it’s a bit of a shameful to go out like that, 7-0 is too much. Losing 7-0 is close to professional misconduct.” ___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer