Arya News - Paris Saint-Germain score three first-half goals, but Erling Haaland brace nearly drags Manchester City back in UCL.
Paris Saint-Germain further soured the mood at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City’s first home game since the guilty verdict on widespread flouting of Premier League financial rules ended in a 4-2 Champions League defeat on Wednesday.
The European champions turned on the style to strike three times inside the opening 35 minutes through Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha.
But City stormed back in the second half as Erling Haaland scored twice on either side of Maghnes Akliouche’s strike, which briefly restored PSG’s three-goal cushion.
The 10-time English champions face swingeing sanctions unless they can successfully appeal last month’s ruling by an independent commission, which found the club guilty on more than 100 charges of financial impropriety.
City shrugged off the uncertainty over their future to win 3-0 at Liverpool on Sunday and remain top of the Premier League, but PSG showed why they are the favourites to win this competition for a third consecutive season.
Former City manager Pep Guardiola returned to the Etihad for the first time since his departure in May, sitting behind the club’s embattled chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and CEO, Ferran Soriano, in a show of solidarity.
City made passing reference to the guilty verdict with a lengthy pre-match video detailing the club’s historic moments of celebration both before and after an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover in 2008 that transformed their fortunes.
Behind one end, supporters unfurled a giant banner reading: “I’m City till I die.”
Yet the fighting talk in the stands didn’t match the on-field action as City were blown away by a scintillating first 45 minutes from the visitors.
Luis Enrique’s decision to leave Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the bench proved inspired, as it meant Doue started wide on the left.
Gianluigi Donnarumma had a point to prove after the Italian goalkeeper was let go by the PSG coach just months after helping deliver the club’s first Champions League title in 2025.
However, it turned out to be a night to forget for the giant Italian.
Donnarumma was caught out at his near post by Doue’s outside-the-box effort after a lightning counter-attack to open the scoring.
The move for the second goal two minutes later was even more impressive, as Doue and Dembele exchanged an elaborate one-two before the latter headed in at the far post.
Achraf Hakimi hit the post before Vitinha rattled in PSG’s third from the edge of the box.
Maresca responded with a triple substitution at half-time and managed to salvage some pride, even if the deficit proved too much to overturn.
Antoine Semenyo and Enzo Fernandez missed glaring chances to pull a goal back even before Haaland glanced home a header from Iliman Ndiaye’s cross.
Yet City were hit by a sucker punch when Donnarumma got a hand to Akliouche’s effort, but the ball looped high and spun back into the net.
Nuno Mendes made a brilliant clearance off his own line, and Haaland hit the bar before the Norwegian slotted home his second of the night.
Donnarumma saved a late Ferran Torres penalty, denying the French champions a fifth goal.
But in the battle between two state-backed projects that have reshaped European football, Qatar-owned PSG are the top dogs right now as City face a scandal that puts their trophy haul over the past 15 years in question.