Manchester City lost the top duel in the Champions League in Paris. This could have serious consequences for the actual title favorite.
Despite a 2-0 lead, Manchester City still lost the top game at Paris Saint-Germain on matchday 7 of the Champions League group phase. From the English champions’ point of view, the score in the Prinzenpark was 2:4.
Now City is threatened with a catastrophe. Before the last group game next week against Club Bruges, star coach Pep Guardiola’s team, with currently only eight points, has even fallen out of the ranks that entitle them to qualify for the intermediate round of the competition. A direct jump to the round of 16 is no longer possible.
After a balanced first half, at the end of which a goal by former Dortmund player Achraf Hakimi for PSG was disallowed due to an offside position, Jack Grealish gave the visitors the lead after 50 minutes. The beginning of a spectacle in Paris.
Ex-BVB star Erling Haaland increased City’s lead to 2-0 just a few minutes later (53′). What initially felt like a kind of early preliminary decision was far from that. Because PSG struck back immediately.
Ousmane Dembélé, who like Hakimi and Haaland used to play in Dortmund, starts a crazy comeback with his goal (56th). A few turns of the pointer later, Bradley Barcola shook the arena with his equalizing goal (60th). Paris pressed, initially hitting the crossbar through Dembélé and then being rewarded shortly afterwards through João Neves. The Portuguese finally turned the game around (78′). Compatriot Gonçalo Ramos even added a goal in stoppage time (90+6).