UCL: PSG beat Man City to maintain unbeaten run against English teams
Champions League holders PSG maintained their Unbeaten run against English teams with a 4-2 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
The visitors took the lead in the 13th minute through Desire Doue, who produced a stunning finish from outside the box to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma.
He assisted Ousmane Dembele for the second goal two minutes later as PSG turned on the heat on the hosts.
Vitinha scored the third goal with a powerful effort in the 32nd minute to give PSG a 3-0 lead going into the break.
Eight minutes after the break, Haaland reduced the deficit with a glancing header to reduce the deficit.
Maghnes Akliouche made it 4-1 in the 63rd minute with a powerful finish.
Haaland scored the second goal for Man City in the 75th minute.
Gianluigi Donnarumma saved from the spot kick to deny Ferran Torres an opportunity to make it 5-2 as PSG held on to seal a deserved win to take their unbeaten run against English teams to 10 matches.
Haaland’s brace saw him overtake Sergio Aguero as Man City’s top scorer in the Champions League with 38 goals.
Manchester City coach, Enzo Maresca apologised to the club’s supporters for the defeat while describing it as strange.
He said: “We are sorry for the first half for sure. Saturday is a Premier League game and we need to continue our run.
“I think we start quite good until the first goal and then we concede the second one after one minute. That created some bad feelings. Second half, we were much better and probably deserved something more.
“It was a bit strange, to be honest. Until the first goal, we started quite good, we were in the game, then we conceded the first and then the second one. We didn’t lose half-time, we adjusted something. We created enough to deserve something more.
“We adjusted a bit when we were pressing. I think we lost a bit of the balance.
“Even with 3-0 in the first half, with the amount of chances we created in the second half, we deserved more. Luis said at the end of the game that they were quite lucky today.
“You have to be clinical but not lose the balance.”
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Meanwhile,PSG coach, Luis Enrique praised his players for the stunning performance while also showering encomiums on the fans.
He said: “Our team is incredible. It’s so courageous and looks to win every single game. And those who are really incredible are our fans. Did you hear them during the match? Our supporters enjoyed this game and that’s fantastic for us. Today, I think we showed the ambition we always show: to try and win the game in the very first minutes.
“But the second half is a lesson that we need to do even better, because we could have lost it, as Manchester City had a lot of chances. It’s a very good result for us, but we need to improve.”
PSG star, Ousmane Dembele has set his sights on next week’s clash against Barcelona.
He said: “Our first half was excellent and we quickly led 2-0. The second half saw us take our foot off the accellerator a little and Manchester City pushed hard. But tonight, we are going to take away the positives. In six days’ time we have another big match against FC Barcelona who have the same number of points as us. But before that we are going to prepare for Strasbourg on Saturday and we’ll see after that.”
In the other Champions League matches on Wednesday, Liverpool earned a 6-3 win over LASK thanks to a sensational hat-trick from Bradley Barcola and further goals from Ronald Araujo, Jeremy Frimpong, and Lewis Koumas.
Real Madrid earned a last-minute 4-3 win over Roma, Aston Villa spanked Fenerbache 6-0, Real Betis pipped Porto 3-2, while Bodo/Glimt stunned Dortmund 1-0.
