Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus strike as Man City make big statement

Victory guaranteed City first place in Group A and marked a ninth consecutive year that the Premier League side have made the knockout stages of the Champions League

Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus (right) celebrates with Bernardo Silva (centre) after scoring their side's second goal of the game during the UEFA Champions League, Group A match

Manchester City 2 PSG 1

Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus capped a second-half comeback from Manchester City that swept aside one of their main rivals for the Champions League and announced Pep Guardiola’s team as genuine contenders.

Victory guaranteed City first place in Group A and marked a ninth consecutive year that the Premier League side have made the knockout stages.

For Mauricio Pochettino, still widely linked with the vacant United job across this city, there was the consolation of seeing PSG join City in the next stage.

But as a barometer of the respective teams’ hopes of winning this trophy for the first time, this was a victory far more significant than the solitary goal suggests.

Sterling struck just after the hour with a routine finish into an open PSG net after his team had taken just 13 minutes to respond to the shock of conceding an opening goal created by, predictably enough, Guardiola’s old protégée Lionel Messi.

That had been converted by Kylian Mbappe but City’s response was as swift as it was emphatic.

Rodri swung a high cross to the far post where Kyle Walker expertly guided the ball back across goal, via a deflection off Marquinhos, and Sterling was unmarked to slide in a deserved equaliser.

It was no more than Guardiola and City deserved, as was the winning goal claimed by Jesus 14 minutes later after Mahrez’s deep cross was laid off, precisely, by Bernardo Silva for the substitute to finish clinically from six yards.

Despite the absence of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, and Kevin De Bruyne — for a combination of match fitness, injury, and Covid-19, respectively — City had set about their task with predictable gusto.

Just five minutes had gone when Riyad Mahrez’s free-kick found the head of Rodri whose effort was nodded clear impressively by Presnel Kimpembe, with Mahrez’s follow-up effort being turned into the side-netting by keeper Keylor Navas.

Young left-back Nuno Mendes, struggling to cope with Mahrez, threatened at the other end as he cut inside Walker only to shoot directly at Ederson.

But City were growing in stature, Guardiola reflecting as much when he leaped to the sideline and waved the fans on, trying to generate some more noise to help capitalise on a golden spell of pressure.

It almost worked. Just after the half hour, Mahrez sent away Bernardo Silva whose cross was almost headed into his own goal by Ander Herrera, Navas saving his embarrassment with a fine stop.

The keeper did the same from a low Mahrez shot but moments earlier had stood rooted to the spot after Joao Cancelo’s cross was only half cleared by Mendes and Ilkay Gundogan struck the outside of the PSG post from 15 yards.

Still, it was eerily reminiscent of the first leg when City dominated large periods of the game only to lose 2-0 and the first half almost ended in similar fashion after a John Stones error let in Neymar who set up Mbappe for a shot which the forward, leaning back, deposited high over the goal.

The news coming through from Belgium at half-time, where Leipzig were four goals to the good at Burgge, rendered the outcome at the Etihad largely redundant, save for bragging rights and the battle to finish the campaign in first place.

That was the good news for Guardiola because the bad was about to be delivered, in inevitable fashion, by Messi after 49 minutes when he set up the opening goal for Mbappe.

For once, Messi was gifted a sliver of space on the edge of the area, where he played a neat one-two with Ander Herrera, which opened up an angle for the Argentinian to power into the box and deliver a far-post cross.

His centre took a kindly deflection off Walker as it flew to the far post where an unmarked Mbappe enjoyed another slice of god fortune, burying a hard, low shot through the legs of Ederson and into the back of the City goal.

It was another test of City’s ability to operate at this heightened level of the European game and Mahrez was soon busily working his way into the area where his shot was straight at Navas.

But after 62 minutes, Sterling had City level and all the momentum belonged to the Premier League side.

After the equaliser, City pressed in for a second; substitute Gabriel Jesus almost delivering it when his shot from a wide angle was well saved, again, by the increasingly busy Navas.

True to the pattern of the night, and the rivalry, however, it was PSG who were guilty of wasting the best opportunity yet for a decisive third goal after a move sparked, again, by Messi and continued by a neat combination between Neymar and Mbappe after 74 minutes.

The Brazilian slalomed his way majestically through the City defence only to somehow miss the target all together with only Ederson to beat — a miss all the more costly when Jesus did score a third goal, two minutes later.

MAN CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Walker 7, Stones 6, Dias 7, Cancelo 7; Gundogan 7, Rodri 8, Zinchenko 5 (Jesus 53, 7); Mahrez 9, Silva 7, Sterling 7. Substitutes (not used) Ake, Steffen, Laporte, Fernandinho, Carson, Palmer, McAtee.

PSG (4-3-3): Navas 8; Hakimi 7, Marquinhos 6, Kimpembe 6, Mendes 5 (Kehrer 67, 5); Paredes 5, Herrera 7 (Danilo 60, 6), Gueye 6 (Di Maria 67, 6); Messi 7, Mbappe 7, Neymar 6. Substitutes (not used) Franchi, Donnarumma, Ramos, Verratti, Icardi, Dagba, Wijnaldum, Diallo, Dina Ebimbe.

Referee: D Orsato (Italy) 7