Entering into the match week two, it couldn’t have gotten bigger and better than Paris Sain-Germain hosting Manchester City at the Parc des Princes.

These teams met in the semi-final of the same competition last year, where City defeated the Paris side over both legs, with an aggregate score of 4 goals to 1. Things have changed significantly since then for PSG. With the addition of Messi, Hakimi, and Donnarumma, they looked much the better side. However, Manchester City was missing some key players in the form of Ilkay Gundogan and was to play without a regular left-back, as both Bernard Mendy and Zinchenko were out of contention.

Both the team came on the backs of some league wins. While PSG has defeated Montepellier in League 1, with a margin of 2 goals to nil, City had had a great outing in Stanford Bridge, where they defeated an in-form Chelsea with a slender margin of 1 goal.

The match was kicked off by Manchester City, who right from the get-go seemed to be the better side. Their link-up play was second to none, and their wingers were able to find a better pocket of spaces to make attacking runs. Although, against the run of play, it was PSG who drew the first blood in the 8th minute as Gana Gueye flashed at a deflected ball, which ended up at the right corner of the goal, giving Ederson no chance of saving it.

After pressing for another twenty-minute or so, a chance finally opened for the visitors as a great pass by De Bruyne found Sterling in the box. His header however deflected off the crossbar and landed tamely for David Silva who misses a tap-in from 2 yards. As a result, the score remained 1-0 in favour of PSG.

At the end of the first half, Manchester City was left ruing those missed chances against what looked like a muddled defence of PSG. There was no organization at the back. Maybe it was because of the new goalkeeper’s lack of communication or something else, but the City should have made the most of the opportunities they had. Also, there was some onus on Lionel Messi and he played some great passes and made some beautifully timed balls, but things just did not click for him with the new teammates.

Manchester City started the second half with a great attack but it fizzled out at the end as Sterling failed to find the back of the net. They tested the 22-year-old Italian Goalkeeper on several occasions and he was up to the task.

With all the attacks coming from one side, PSG once again found that moment of brilliance in the 74th minute. This time it was the little magician who started the counterattack by running down the right-wing and then cut inside just at the right time to do a one-two with Mbappe that left Messi with enough space to take the shot off and the Argentine made sure to bury the shot from the edge of the box to make it 2-0.

Towards the end of the match, spaces started to open up for the kind of free counterattacking football that PSG favours. They couldn’t capitalize on then though, as the match ended with the scoreline of 2-0 in favour of PSG.

With this win, PSG is the new leader in Group A.

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TOPICS: Kevin De Bruyne Kylian Mbappe Lionel Messi Manchester City F.C. Neymar PSG UEFA Champions League