Classy PSG spoil Pep Guardiola's Manchester City homecoming
Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola in the stands before the UEFA Champions League, league phase match at the Etihad Stadium. Pic: Martin Rickett/the Press Association.
It has been suggested that if Manchester City are to qualify for next season's Champions League, they will have to lift the trophy to do it.
If the evidence on show at the Etihad is anything to go by, however, the biggest problem that Enzo Maresca has is that the reigning champions from Paris appear better than ever.
Maresca built a siege mentality to wear down down Liverpool on Sunday, when City played their first game since being told that they had been found guilty of 114 counts of financial chicanery laid down by the Premier League. But PSG are a very different beast.
An appeal has already been lodged. But there have been calls for City to be kicked down the divisions if the verdict is upheld - meaning there would only be one way for them to remain part of Europe's elite.
An Arabian night in Manchester turned into a PSG masterclass before City made a game of it.
Luis Enrique's side are looking to become the first club to achieve a three-peat in this competition since Real Madrid a decade ago.
They scored three times in the first 32 minutes through Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha - and it should have been more.
Erling Haaland twice reduced the deficit in the second half, either side of a Maghnes Akliouche strike that all-but extinguished City's hopes of a comeback.
Paris were a class above City in the first half. Even with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Joao Neves starting on the bench.
Before kick-off, a firework display lit up the Manchester skies as footage of City's greatest nights was played on the two big screens situated in opposite corners of the West Stand.
Pep Guardiola was back for the evening, a few days after telling his former club that he still believes in their innocence.
There was no pomp and ceremony for his return. In fact, the Catalan appeared to be doing his best to blend in with the locals by wearing a flat cap as he took his place in the posh seats.
Once the smoke had cleared, the game itself was a bit of a slow burner. City had a penalty appeal waved away when Rayan Cherki tumbled under Marquinhos' challenge. Parisian keeper Matvel Safanov then punched Cherki's corner against his own crossbar.
Then came an explosion of Parisian brilliance that saw them score twice in the space of just 98 seconds.
They went ahead in the 13th minute, when a quick counter attack ended with Doue sending a low shot searing past Gianluigi Donnarumma's right hand from 25 yards after spotting that the Italian keeper had strayed too far to his right.
In an instant they had exposed City's lack of defensive numbers again, when Dembele picked out Doue in space on the left and then continued his run into the box before ducking to head home the return cross.
Haaland lifted the home fans by intercepting Vitinha's pass and charging towards goal from inside his own half, but Willian Pacho recovered to block his shot.
But there was now a real swagger about the reigning champions as they passed and moved at will.
They should have scored again when Abdukodir Khusanov once again left Doue in space and he teased a delicious cross that Achraf Hakimi headed against the post from six yards.
The reprieve lasted just a few seconds. Warren Zaire-Emery's pass found Vitinha 25 yards out and he turned to lash a shot past Donnarumma with minimal backlift. PSG's 3,000 travelling fans celebrated by performing the Poznan.
Hakimi might have added another but sent his shot straight at Donnarumma. A TV camera caught Guardiola grimacing.
City, like a punch-drunk heavyweight, came out swinging after the break after Maresca sent on Matheus Nunes, Iliman Ndiaye and Ayyoub Bouaddi.
Haaland and Enzo Fernandez should have both reduced the deficit before the Norwegian's fierce header finally beat Safonov from Ndiaye's cross in the 53rd minute.
Antione Semenyo clipped a shot against the crossbar as City threatened to produce the mother of all comebacks.
But then Donnarumma palmed Maghnes Akliouche's shot on the turn and watched in agony as the ball looped into the goal before he could claw it away.
City still didn't lie down. Fernandez thrashed a shot from distance against the angle and then Haaland looped a header onto the crossbar before scoring again in the 75th minute.
Bouaddi broke down the right to pull a low cross back into the path of the striker to sweep a right-foot finish into the bottom corner.
The same pair then combined again eight minutes from time, but this time Safonov was able to block Haaland's lunging far-post effort.
Former City striker Ferran Torres saw his weak penalty saved by Donnarumma three minutes from time after Nunes' lunge took down Nuno Mendes.
Donnarumma 5; Khusanov 6, Dias 5 (Nunes 46, 6), Guehi 7, Gvardiol 6; Anderson 6, Fernandez 7 (O'Reilly 90); Semenyo 7, Cherki 5 (Bouaddi 46, 7), Doku 5 (Ndiaye 46, 7 ); Haaland 7.
Safonov 5; Hakimi 7, Marquinhos 7, Pacho 7, Mendes 7; Zaire-Emery 6 (Beraldo 84), Vitinha 7, Ruiz 6 (Hernandez 84); Akliouche 7 (Neves 76, 6), Dembele 7 (Torres, 76, 5), Doue 8 (Kvaratskhelia 66, 6).
Sven Jablonski (Germany) 6.
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