Manchester City let another lead slip away as they succumbed to a devastating 4-2 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.
PSG were excellent at home but found themselves two goals down at the start of the second half. An immediate response brought the Parc des Princes back into the game, and they eventually edged past their fragile visitors.
It was a night to remember for Luis Enrique and his team, but there is still work to be done if they are to secure a play-off spot. City’s defeat means they have dropped out of the top 24 of the league stage standings and are at serious risk of exiting the Champions League before the knockout stages.
How the game developed
The big players were in town with Paris Fashion Week underway, although Thomas Tuchel and Didier Deschamps are unlikely to be seen on the catwalk after enjoying Wednesday night’s Champions League clash .
It was a Parisian evening, a certain Owen Wilson (or, at least, his character Midnight in Paris) strangely could have enjoyed a stroll, but the conditions facilitated some wonderful sequences of football between two highly technical teams.
PSG were brilliant throughout the opening period, their intensity without the ball unearthing a City side that have shown signs of rediscovering their attacking power of late. PSG’s pressure has forced the visitors long-term, but the direct ball has caused a problem or two before the home team. Gianluigi Donnarumma, however, was only forced to make routine saves.
PSG’s flurry out of possession was matched by their exuberance, but their exciting wide players initially lacked assertiveness in the final third. Thus, their best chance of the first half was from a set piece, as Fabian Ruiz received an effort from Josko Gvardiol. Enrique’s side thought they had taken a 1-0 lead just before half-time, but Achraf Hakimi’s goal was scored after Nuno Mendes was ruled offside in the build-up.
Interval changes from both managers suggested neither were particularly happy with what happened in the first period, and one of Guardiola’s subs, Jack Grealish, made an immediate impact when he broke the deadlock with a powerful finish from close range.
Grealish was involved again minutes later as City doubled their lead through Erling Haaland. Matheus Nunes was responsible for breaking PSG’s press by driving through the heart of the Parisians’ defensive structure before teeing up Grealish to cross.
City’s opening barrage in the second half sucked the life out of a previously fervent Parc des Princes, but Bradley Barcola offered hope to the hosts as he scavenged Nunes with a wonderful skill, burst into the box and delivered a another substitute, Ousmane Dembele, to halve their deficit. The young French full-back equalized for PSG when he scored after a huge turnover, and Barcola capitalized on the rebound.
The Cityzens’ problems in the first half in front of the PSG press showed themselves afterwards, and the home crowd must have smelled blood. Guardiola’s changes seemed to hamper the visitors, who could not escape the Parisian pressure amid a cacophony of persistent roars from the ultras. Their capitulation was completed in the closing stages as the majestic Joao Neves headed home at the back post before Goncalo Ramos added a fourth in injury time after city didn’t get any kind of response.
Check out PSG 4-2 Man City player ratings here.
It had been a while since these two coaches with trebles with Barcelona faced each other on the sidelines. Their last meeting came during Guardiola’s first campaign with City, but the most memorable duel came when Guardiola took his Bayern Munich to Camp Nou for the first leg of the 2014/15 Champions League semi-final against Enrique’s Barça, losing 3-3. 0 to the Catalans inspired by ‘MSN’.
The current iterations of their respective teams are far from the best either coach has coached, but that didn’t detract from Wednesday night’s tactical spectacle.
PSG’s man-to-man pressure slowed City down in the first half, with their collective effort bearing witness to Enrique’s training. They were superbly coached but the hosts were neither brave nor ruthless enough to take advantage of the mismatches they created against City’s defence.
Guardiola’s substitutes swung the game in the visitors’ favor after the break, but a change from Enrique – Dembele on for Kang – ensured PSG posed a greater threat. The Frenchman returned to PSG in the match, and PSG he was most successful while having two full-backs constantly maintaining the width that relentlessly tested City’s full-backs. Their excellent work out of possession returned to the front line afterwards, with their energy refusing to stop, and they were able to contain Guardiola’s side deep before Neves headed home the opener.
This has to go down as Enrique’s most impressive night in Paris. His PSG side have at times looked naïve, one-dimensional and light against stellar opposition, but on Wednesday night they were better than Guardiola’s side in almost every way.
This once supreme force has not been adverse to losing points from winning positions. Brentford recently fought back from 2-0 down in the closing stages to earn a point against City, with Guardiola’s side losing 14 in total Premier League and five others in this competition before tonight.
Who can forget the capitulation against Feyenoord?
Without his stabilizing enforcer at the base of midfield. Cities are prone to collapse. The Parc des Princes were tamed after Grealish and Haaland put them 2-0 up, but they were the subject of a moment of magic from Barcola that brought PSG back into the game straight away. Regaining control would have been his aim with PSG’s tail up suddenly, but then Mateo Kovacic, the man who has been mainly tasked with easing Rodri’s absence, succumbed to pressure from the home side, give the ball away and Barcola finally equalized.
A lack of outlets and ball carriers allowed PSG to suffocate after restoring parity, and the hosts always looked the most likely to score the game’s fifth goal, completing City’s collapse.
It looked like it would be PSG with all the work to do on Matchday 8, but City’s quick demise and subsequent defeat means that Guardiola’s side will have to win next week to progress to the play-off stage.
The 2023 winners are winless in four league stage games and have fallen to 25th in the table. They are two points behind Stuttgart, who PSG face next week, in the final play-off spot. So just a win will do against a Club Brugge side that cannot be underestimated at the Etihad. Anything less and City will be unthinkably out of Europe before February.
PSG’s impressive comeback has seen them climb to 22nd, but they are far from safe. There is still work to be done in Stuttgart with just two points clear of City in the table. A point should be enough, but defeat in Germany will likely make this win irrelevant.
