The pre-game show at the Parc des Princes was quite a production. There were lights and lasers in the darkness and a huge banner was unfurled behind one of the goals, at the Virage Auteuil.
The banner was resplendent with the image of a skull and, underneath it, a message. ‘Battu par les flots,’ it said, ‘Paris n’a jamais sombre.’
Battered by the waves, it means, Paris has never sunk.
And so it came to pass. Two-nil down early in the second half to a Manchester City team that did not deserve its lead, PSG refused to be submerged. Instead, it was City who disappeared beneath the raging torrent in an uproarious stadium, surrendering pitifully to the French champions.
If we all had begun to think that City’s unexpected crisis this season was over, then we had better think again. This calamitous defeat leaves them outside the top 24 teams who will qualify for the next phase of the Champions League and fighting to stay in the competition with one game left.
Such a prospect was unthinkable at the start of this season but now City must beat Club Bruges at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday to progress. They will be favourites but they are not the City of old. Nothing is certain any more.
Goncalo Ramos helped secure a famous win for Paris Saint-Germain as they came back from two goals down against Manchester City
The home bench erupted in celebration as the Portugal star netted deep in added time on Wednesday evening
In a damning state of affairs, City have dropped eight points from winning positions in the Champions League this season
They were outplayed from start to finish last night, even if they did take that two-goal lead. That was the start of a crazy period of four goals in 10 minutes and 44 seconds, one of them a first European payback by Erling Haaland for the new nine-and-a-half-year mega deal he signed last week.
But City threw that lead away and when Joao Neves scored PSG’s third with 12 minutes to go, there was no way back. Goncalo Ramos finished things off with the last kick of the game and PSG, who have been struggling desperately in the competition themselves, had sneaked back into the top 24. City had not.
Under coach Luis Enrique, PSG are moving away from the galactico culture that dominated their development for so long after Qatar bought the club in 2011. Only remnants of that star system remain. The biggest change is the departure of Kylian Mbappe, who left for Real Madrid in the summer, and whose presence, and ability, had become an overpowering influence at the Parc des Princes.
Gianluigi Donnarumma started in goal and Achraf Hakimi was at right back but Ousmane Dembele was only given a place on the bench. PSG are, at last, trying to build a team rather than collecting individuals. But even if it has yielded results in Ligue 1, where they are top of the table, nine points clear of Marseille, they have suffered even more grievously than City in the Champions League.
PSG started like a team possessed. They harried City out of their stride and their passing rhythm with relentless pressing and moved the ball confidently and precisely on the slick surface.
City struggled to keep them at bay. Ruben Dias was booked for a brutal block on Hakimi in the 10th minute as the PSG full back raced on to a pass. A minute later, Joao Neves should have scored when he ran unmarked on to a free-kick but he could only direct his back-post header over the bar.
Haaland made his first meaningful contribution after 20 minutes when he rose to meet a cross from Phil Foden but his header was straight at Donnarumma, who plucked it out of the air.
But that chance could not disguise the fact PSG were much the better team in the opening half an hour. Their midfield of Vitinha, Neves and Fabian Ruiz controlled the game and when Ruiz slammed a shot goalwards from a half-cleared corner, only a fine goal-line clearance from Josko Gvardiol stopped the French champions taking the lead.
Achraf Hakimi thought he had been the player to break the first-half deadlock before his strike was ruled offside
Jack Grealish made an instant impact after coming off the bench in the second-half as he put City ahead
Erling Haaland doubled City’s lead within two minutes on a wet night in the capital
But Ousmane Dembele was equally efficient in front of goal as he hit back within moments of the second goal
Young talent Bradly Barcola provided a lightning-quick leveller four minutes after the hosts got onto the scoresheet
Joao Neves helped PSG swipe back victory in normal time as he scored the hosts’ third in Paris
City threatened sporadically. Foden led a lightning counter-attack and fed the ball to Savinho, whose shot was stopped by the left leg of Donnarumma, but they were only brief intervals in PSG’s dominance.
PSG thought they had taken the lead on the stroke of half-time when Hakimi rammed in a fierce shot from 12 yards out but replays showed Nuno Mendes had strayed offside in the build-up and VAR ruled the strike out.
Both coaches made changes at the interval. Dembele came on for PSG, and for City, Jack Grealish replaced Savinho and Rico Lewis came on for Dias. One substitution paid immediate dividends.
City broke down the right, Manuel Akanji cut the ball back to Bernardo Silva and when his shot was pushed out, Grealish was waiting eight yards out. His technique was beautiful. He kept his head over the ball and rifled a rising drive high into the net.
Three minutes later, City doubled their lead. This time, Grealish was the provider. He dashed into space on the left and cut a ball back into the area. A defender tried to intercept it but only succeeded in pushing it into the path of Haaland.
Haaland is not paid £500,000 a week to miss from three yards out and as Donnarumma desperately scrambled to his left to try to snuff out the danger, Haaland smashed it into the net.
It felt as if City were home and dry and all but into the play-off places. But this is not the City we have grown used to over the last decade. This is a different City, a City that oozes vulnerability, a City that loses leads.
Three minutes after Haaland’s strike, PSG were back in the game. Bradley Barcola nutmegged Matheus Nunes and burst down the left, crossing for Dembele, who swept it home first time.
Haaland was unable to add more goals to his tally after scoring his 47th in the competition
The hosts saw out a deserved win against a lacklustre and complacent Man City set-up
Pep Guardiola will have much to contemplate as he prepares for what could be his team’s last European outing of the season
The atmosphere in the stadium changed completely. Suddenly, it was filled with positivity and hope and noise again. Only four minutes after their first goal, PSG were level. Desire Doue curled a lovely shot over Ederson and against face of the bar and when the rebound fell to Barcola, he turned it straight back into the goal.
Now PSG looked as if they were going to score every time they attacked. Dembele nutmegged Bernardo Silva and crashed his shot against the face of the bar with Ederson beaten.
It was only a brief reprieve for City. With 11 minutes of normal time remaining, Vitinha curled a free kick into the area that City failed to clear. It bounced to Neves, who had been left unmarked at the back post, and he met the ball in full flight, and headed it down so that it beat Ederson at his near post. All that was left was for Goncalo Ramos to administer the coup de grace.
