Manchester City 2-4 Paris Saint-Germain (Haaland 53’, 75’ | Doue 13’, Dembele 15′, Vitinha 32′, Akliouche 62′)
ETIHAD STADIUM — All that cheating and they still get schooled by a French team. Another £900m in “sham” deals would not have made any difference in Manchester City’s first home match since their guilty verdict, however. Paris Saint-Germain were playing a different sport altogether.
We cannot hold PSG up as the barometer of moral truth, given their own chequered history with Financial Fair Play, but this was nonetheless a lesson for City and their owners.
Even before City, their Abu Dhabi overlords and the Premier League began their attritional litigation, Qatari-owned PSG, despite assumptions to the contrary, took a different diplomatic path to their neighbours in the Gulf.
Chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi is the master at forging the right relationships with the right people. PSG did not join the much-maligned European Super League, with Al-Khelaifi instead heading the European Clubs Association (ECA), now known as European Football Clubs (EFC). Some senior executives now call it the “seventh confederation”.
On the other hand, City have remained at war with Uefa for years, while they have never seen eye to eye with authorities on home soil, either.
On the pitch, the contrast in the two teams was also stark. Now that their conduct is out in the open, getting to anything like the level of Wednesday’s opponents is going to be the most monumental of tasks for City. On this evidence, no other team in Europe has a hope in hell of stopping the Parisian juggernaut.
The journey to the Etihad from Manchester Piccadilly acted as a stark reminder that City’s unprecedented tale of deception transcends sport.
Passing through New Islington, the evening sun disappeared behind all the high-rise apartments. Before the Abu Dhabi United Group began its regeneration of the area of Ancoats, traditionally one of the tougher areas of the city, there was nothing over two storeys high.
Given such development was overseen by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and no sanctions are close to being revealed, City will continue to make the front and back pages.
Pep Guardiola’s reappearance added another layer of intrigue. After spending time in the Chairman’s Suite pre-match, the City great with a legacy to preserve emerged alongside besieged chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO Ferran Soriano and sporting director Hugo Viana. To little fanfare.
It was not quite the emotional reunion with his people, or an especially strong act of defiance. With a flat cap hiding his face, you would not have known he was there had a shaky cameraman not picked him out in the crowd. Another incongruous episode of this most disconcerting story.
In his first programme notes since City’s guilty verdict, Enzo Maresca had moved on from downplaying his side’s predicament as “noise” in previous interviews. It appears that he still has not grasped the seriousness of it all – as he would not be distracted by “other things”.
An elaborate fireworks display, to a new video montage, of key moments from throughout City’s history, before Sheikh Mansour and after, was put on for supporters pre-match, and seemed pointed. As did the “CTID” (City Till I Die) mural in the Pep Guardiola Stand.
After a positive start from the home side, it soon became apparent that the gulf, pun intended, between these two teams remains more of a chasm. That is no slight on the home side, the Parisians are simply operating in another realm.
Desire Doue’s imaginative opener caught Gianluigi Donnarumma unawares 13 minutes, before the Ballon d’Or nominee turned sublime supplier for another teammate in the running later this month. Ousmane Dembele could not miss with the close-range header 99 seconds later.
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By the time Vitinha had swept home a third just after the half-hour mark – the first time City had ever conceded three in one half in Europe – PSG were eyeing another humiliation for their petrostate brothers.
City, in fact, could have mounted a breathtaking comeback in the second half as Erling Haaland netted twice and missed a whole host of chances to complete his hat-trick, but Donnarumma making a mess of keeping out a Maghnes Akliouche long-range effort, parrying the ball up into the air before being unable to keep the spinning ball out of his net, put the contest to bed.
A thrilling encounter finally came to end with 42 shots at goal having been shared among the exhilarating pair. Given the circumstances, it still remains difficult to quite put a label on the overriding feeling having watched it.