Manchester City are staring in the face of Champions League disaster after throwing away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 against a terrific Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesda. Pep Guardiola’s side looked in total control when Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland scored to give them an ideal start to the second half, but the French champions staged an incredible comeback to leapfrog the Cityzens in the standings and leaving City 25th in the table, needing victory in their final game against Club Brugge and for results elsewhere to go their way in order to avoid a catastrophic early exit.
City went into the game sitting in the final qualification berth and one more slip away from contemplating an unthinkable early exit from the competition they won in 2023. PSG were in an even more perilous position, heading into the game 26th in the table and needing to win to have their fate in their own hands heading into next week’s crunch final matchday.
The French champions took the initiative in the first half and would have taken the lead had Josko Gvardiol not blocked Fabian Ruiz’s volley on the line. Achraf Hakimi did find the net, meanwhile, but the goal was ruled out for a fractional offside in the build-up.
Guardiola, uncharacteristically, took drastic action at the break by bringing on Grealish and Rico Lewis at half-time, and Grealish scored with his first touch, burying a loose ball, before and moments later setting up Haaland to score at the far post.
But PSG, staring in the face of their most humiliating Champions League exit yet, roared back into life, spurred on by the livewire Bradley Barcola. He bombed down the wing past the hapless Matheus Nunes to tee up Ousmane Dembele to score before striking the equaliser himself, pouncing on weak goalkeeping from Ederson.
The Brazilian’s night got worse as he couldn’t keep out Joao Neves’ near-post strike, and as City desperately searched for an equaliser, Goncalo Ramos made sure of victory, his goal given after a long VAR check.
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