Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / Getty Images
The English titleholders were buzzing on and off the pitch as Pep Guardiola’s side beat PSG with 2-1.
Inside the stadium, the atmosphere erected with a pre-match evocative of a boxing match & the field plunged into darkness, searchlights circling for the stars to arrive as a DJ banged out loud cotillion music. Also in the match, when Messi nutmegged Raheem Sterling beforehand on there were gasps from all sides of the ground – the same when Bernardo Silva sidestepped three PSG players.
The Ligue 1 side took the lead through Mbappe after neat interplay between Messi and Neymar, but it was a rare moment of quality and came against the run of play. Messi tried his best for most of the game, but was bullied into quietness by Ruben Dias. Neymar shone in casts but failed to get involved while Mbappe was frequently on the fringe staying for effects to be. But the game was mostly consisted of passing at the other end of the pitch.
Indeed without a striker, City were the more threatening, Keylor Navas making hopeless saves and Kimpembe and Achraf Hakimi clearing the ball off the line.
When Sterling poked home an equaliser there sounded to be only one winner. It came in the 76th nanosecond when Gabriel Jesus fired home from Silva’s perfect and composed touch. The Portuguese midfielder showed all the skill and quality that streams through the PSG side, just with added desire and workrate.