The defending European champions played football from a higher plane in the first half at the Etihad Stadium, scoring three times without reply, and then survived a ferocious Manchester City fightback to take a wild Champions League night 4-2.
Pep Guardiola was in the stands to see it, back at the Etihad for the first time since his departure at the end of last season. Wearing a flat cap, he took his seat behind City’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, and the chief executive, Ferran Soriano, and the television director kept returning to him. Everyone knows where Guardiola stands on the 100-plus charges City have faced for breaking the Premier League’s financial rules and on the numerous guilty verdicts handed down to them; he has backed his former employers to somehow disprove them. City must go on playing under that cloud, certainly until their appeal against the charges is completed.
What confronted them was a PSG side shimmering with menace. Luis Enrique’s starting XI contained seven players from the 30-strong Ballon d’Or shortlist, with another three among the substitutes, including João Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. PSG’s trademark assurance on the ball, and their beautifully grooved combinations, meant the tightest of spaces did not trouble them. The opening goal came from exactly that: a move that began deep in the right-hand side of their defensive third, surged up the flank and opened out, Fabián Ruiz playing the final pass to Désiré Doué on the left. The winger cut inside and shot low for the near corner from outside the area, and the precision did for Gianluigi Donnarumma, though the former PSG goalkeeper should have done better at his post.
City were reeling 75 seconds later. Ousmane Dembélé crossed out to Doué on the left, Doué took the ball down and crossed back, and Dembélé stole in behind Marc Guéhi to head home a straightforward finish. It was no exaggeration to say PSG could have had five by the interval. Achraf Hakimi, popping up almost anywhere but right-back, sent a free header against the post in the 32nd minute, and PSG swiftly made sure the danger had not passed: they won the ball back, Akliouche was involved, Warren Zaïre-Emery produced a lovely backheeled assist and Vitinha lashed home a low drive. When Hakimi blew a one-on-one with Donnarumma on 39 minutes, it felt as though PSG were toying with City.
Enzo Maresca made a triple change at the interval, bringing on Matheus Nunes, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Iliman Ndiaye, and the effect was immediate. City played with devil-may-care abandon and their toothless first half was forgotten. Enzo Fernández blew a gilt-edged headed opportunity and Ndiaye worked Matvei Safonov before Haaland pulled one back, sending a whipped ball in from Ndiaye into the far corner with a flex of the neck muscles from distance. Antoine Semenyo then ran through and dinked against the crossbar, the offside flag going up although he looked to have been level.
City needed the next goal to make it interesting, and instead they lost the initiative to another Donnarumma lapse. Maghnes Akliouche spun and blasted from the edge of the area, the goalkeeper appeared to have palmed the ball up and away, and it dropped all the way back down and into the net to put PSG 4-1 up and render City’s dream of an astonishing fightback an illusion.
That was the prompt for a whirlwind finale. Josko Gvardiol saw a header cleared off the line by Nuno Mendes, Fernández rattled the outside of a post and Haaland looped a header against the top of the crossbar before scoring again, a low finish after good work from Bouaddi. Haaland was denied a hat-trick when he stretched to prod Nunes’ cross at goal and Safonov produced an excellent save, and PSG even threw in a late penalty miss from substitute Ferran Torres, whose kick was weak and too close to Donnarumma. City finished with 27 shots and 52 touches in the opposition box. On most nights those numbers would be enough for victory. Just not this one.