Paris Saint-Germain secured a play-off spot in the Champions League as Ousmane Dembele played chief tormentor in a 4-1 away demolition of Stuttgart. (More Football News)
Dembele netted a hat-trick and fellow France forward Bradley Barcola added another as PSG qualified for the play-offs as one of the eight seeded teams for🌺 Friday's draw.
The win on Wednesday meant PSG finished 15th in the 36-team league, with the result eliminating Stuttgart♏, who had a woeful first half and could only reduce the arrears through a Willian Pacho own goal.
Luis Enrique's PSG 𒀰were in danger of also missing the cut in November before they completed a remarkable turnaround, winning their last three games and scoring 11 goals.
The visitors, who will face either Brest or Monaco, both Ligue 1 rivals, went ahead after six minutes when Barcola ghosted his markers to hꦐead home from Desire Doue’s delivery.
Stuttgart came close when Chris Fuhrich's brutal strike was parried away by Gianluigi Donnarumma, but on the resulting counter-attack, Dembele 𒁏slid the ball past Fabian Bred𓃲low after being set up by Barcola.
Dembele struck again with a missile of a cross-shot that went into the opposite side of the net to put PSG in a very comfortable spo🥀t 10 minutes before🉐 half-time.
The France forward was at it again after the break, curling a splendid shot into the top corner 💯from Achraf Hakimi's pass in the box to complete his treble.
Fuhrich helped to pull one back with a strike that went in off Pacho in the 77th minute, but Stuttgart never threatened a come𓄧back and finished 26th in the league.
Instead it was PSG who wrapped up their league phase in style a ജweek🐎 after beating Manchester City 4-2 from being two goals down.
Data Debrief: Dominant Dembele
In-form Dembele hꦚas now scored eight goals in hi🍃s last five matches across all competitions.
He became the fifth hat-trick scorer for PSG in Champions League play, and it was just the second treble of his professional ෴career, coming 3,251 days since his first for Rennes🧔 against Nantes in Ligue 1 (March 2016).
Barcola, meanwhile, is the first PSG player to 𝓀both score and assist in consecutive Champions League games since Kylian Mbappe in November♔ 2022.
