It was supposed to be over by now. It most certainly would have been in bygone eras. Substitute Jack Grealish broke the deadlock, and soon after, Erling Haaland tapped in from close range. Manchester City appeared poised to revive their flagging Champions League campaign with 53 minutes remaining.
Still, Pep Guardiola’s current Premier League winning squad has lost some of its former certainty. They are susceptible to the opposition’s high-tempo flurry in a repeated fashion. They wanted to show that they had recovered from their terrible October losing streak of one win in thirteen games. Four of their five prior matches had been victories.
Saint-Germain defeats Paris 4-2 Live coverage of Manchester City’s Champions League
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Rather, they disintegrated. Once more. As a substitution for Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola set up the first goal and then scored the second himself, electrifying Paris Saint-Germain. At halftime, Guardiola changed his defence as Josko Gvardiol moved into the midfield and Rico Lewis into the left back position after Rúben Dias was substituted due to an injury.
When it came to defending, City was a complete disaster. They were terrible with the ball, allowed dangerous gaps to develop up frequently, and offered no defence against the outnumbered midfield. The 3-2 PSG goal was predicated and preceded by another defensive shakeup by Guardiola, who substituted John Stones for Gvardiol, moved Lewis to right back, and sent Stones on as a substitute in the centre. They maintained an air of total strangerdom.
João Neves stooped and scored after Stones missed his header from a free-kick by Vitinha. He had too much power on his diving header for Ederson to handle.
There was little hope of a City equaliser ever materialising. That was it. PSG scored a late fourth goal as substitute Gonçalo Ramos bent the ball home after a flurry of clear opportunities created by the Paris Saint-Germain offence. The goal was overturned due to offside after the video assistant referee noticed that the touch that allowed him to score had come off of Gvardiol.
Ligue 1’s PSG have resumed play. With such a demanding schedule, their campaign has been incredibly taxing. On the road, they faced Bayern Munich and Arsenal; in their own stadium, they faced PSV Eindhoven, Atlético Madrid, and now City. They started the match below the play-off qualifying mark and will still require a tie in next Wednesday’s final group stage match at Stuttgart to advance.
Where does City stand? No one can expect them to qualify for the playoffs based on this data, even if they win next Wednesday’s home game against Club Brugge. Their home tie with Feyenoord, in which they let a 3-0 lead slip, added insult to injury to an already sour Champions League campaign that included defeats at Sporting and Juventus. Presenting this now.
It felt like an endless sizing up exercise in the first half, but the second half was incredible with this rowdy arena rocking and PSG pulsating with energy. Fabián Ruiz had the best opportunity of any player in the 27th minute, but there were plenty of good ones. After City’s defence crumbled, he found himself alone in the area, but Gvardiol brilliantly cleared his shot off the line.
Tight margins were present. Prior to halftime, PSG had the ball in the back of the net when Achraf Hakimi’s attempt from a Barcola set was deflected and flashed home, but the video assistant referee ruled that Nuno Mendes was slightly offside. When Neves was unmarked at the back post eleven minutes into the game, he headed high.
Gianluigi Donnarumma made huge stops to deny Kevin De Bruyne and Savinho, two of City’s best players, in the first half. Haaland was unable to clear a header, which gave the custodian the opportunity to make a save.
At the beginning of the second half, City let their guard down and made some daring runs, and they were up 2-0 in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Manuel Akanji scored the first when he completed a stop-and-go manoeuvre on Mendes and crossed the ball in from the byline. Once again, Donnarumma made a good block from Bernardo Silva in close range, but the ball eventually dropped to Grealish following a deflection that hit both Marquinhos and Donnarumma.
In the second, Matheus Nunes’s diagonal run was the main attraction, and a stroke of luck helped when the stretching Neves unintentionally played Haaland into Grealish’s cut-back. With the ball in the net, Haaland had no chance of missing.
The quiet of the Parc did not last long. The way Barcola played in the Champions League was questioned. I found the solution here. He outsmarted Nunes and dribbled past Mateo Kovacic to set up Dembélé for the goal. After Desire Doué cut in and curled a shot that rocked the crossbar, he reacted so quickly. Inside the far corner, Barcola’s first-time finish was guided.
On the front foot, PSG pressed relentlessly. The citizens of the city were perplexed. Dembélé crashed a shot against the crossbar after nutmegging Silva, and they continued to pile on the misery after Neves scored. A goal scored by Dembélé was disallowed due to offside, and Ramos was denied by Ederson from close range. Ramos and PSG still had a ways to go.
