Two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain beat Manchester City 4-2 in a pulsating Champions League encounter on Wednesday, their devastating first-half display proving decisive against a City side playing under a cloud of scrutiny.
On a breathless night featuring 46 goals, Bradley Barcola scored a hat-trick as Liverpool thrashed LASK 6-3, Aston Villa recorded their biggest European win with a 6-0 thrashing of Fenerbahce; and Real Madrid staged a stunning late comeback to beat AS Roma 4-3. But no fixture carried more intrigue than the Etihad clash, where City played their first home game since being found guilty of 114 breaches of financial rules. City, who have denied all wrongdoing and appealed the verdict, were carved open by PSG in the first half.
Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele scored less than two minutes apart before Warren Zaire-Emery's clever touch released Vitinha to drive the third beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 32nd minute. City emerged transformed after the break and Erling Haaland headed in Iliman Ndiaye's cross in the 53rd minute to become the fastest player to reach 60 Champions League goals, hitting the landmark in 60 games compared with Lionel Messi’s previous record of 80.
City's joy was short-lived as Maghnes Akliouche's stunning long-range strike found the net despite Donnarumma getting a hand to it. Haaland had the City fans on their feet when he swept home Ayyoub Bouaddi's pass in the 75th minute for his second, before Donnarumma made up for his blunder by saving a penalty from Ferran Torres.
"I reckon we're one of the best teams in Europe defending and attacking from set pieces but obviously we're talking about playing a team like Manchester City with big, strong players and it's difficult to manage those situations, set pieces, in defence," PSG manager Luis Enrique said after the match. "I think what i would look at in terms of improvement today is making fewer mistakes under pressure. I think sometimes we got a bit distracted at the beginning of the second half, we lost our focus, and when you give time and space to players of that quality, well we saw what happened. We knew what would happen if we allowed that to happen."
The match unfolded against an "us against the world" backdrop, with City fans in the South Stand holding up cards that read "CTID" (City Till I Die). Former City manager Pep Guardiola watched from the stands alongside chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and senior executives Ferran Soriano and Hugo Viana.
"That's been a bit strange game. Especially because we conceded two goals in two minutes, that creates some problems for us," Manchester City manager, Enzo Maresca said. "Before the first goal, we didn't concede nothing, we had some good moment, then we consider the first one and after one minutes, two minutes, we consider the second one. So it become more, difficult. And then i think second half we, we did enough to deserve something more," Maresca added.
