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Stuttgart 1-4 Paris Saint-Germain: Dembele hat-trick secures play-off spot
Ousmane Dembele scored a Champions League hat-trick as PSG made sure of a place in the play-off round at Stuttgart's expense.
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.
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 were 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 head 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 slid the ball past Fabian Bredlow 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 spot 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 comeback and finished 26th in the league.
Instead it was PSG who wrapped up their league phase in style a week after beating Manchester City 4-2 from being two goals down.
Data Debrief: Dominant Dembele
In-form Dembele has now scored eight goals in his 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 both score and assist in consecutive Champions League games since Kylian Mbappe in November 2022.