MANCHESTER, United Kingdom
\nParis Saint-Germain further soured the mood at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City\u2019s 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.
\nBut City stormed back in the second half as Erling Haaland scored twice either side of Maghnes Akliouche\u2019s strike that briefly restored PSG\u2019s three-goal cushion. The 10-time English champions face swingeing sanctions unless they can successfully appeal the ruling of an independent commission last month, which found the club guilty on over 100 charges of financial impropriety.
\nCity 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 favorites 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, sat behind the club\u2019s embattled chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and CEO Ferran Soriano in a show of solidarity.
\nCity made passing reference to the guilty verdict with a lengthy pre-match video detailing the club\u2019s historic moments of celebration both before and after an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover in 2008 that transformed their fortunes. Behind one end supporters unraveled a giant banner reading: \u201cI\u2019m City till I die.\u201d Yet the fighting talk in the stands was not matched on the field as City were blown away by a scintillating first 45 minutes from the visitors.
\nLuis Enrique\u2019s decision to leave Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the bench proved to be 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\u2019s first Champions League title in 2025. However, it turned out to be a night to forget for the giant Italian.
\nDonnarumma was caught out at his near post by Doue\u2019s effort from outside the box after a lightning counter-attack to open the scoring.
\nThe 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\u2019s 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.
\nAntoine Semenyo and Enzo Fernandez missed glaring chances to pull a goal back even before Haaland glanced home a header from Iliman Ndiaye\u2019s cross. Yet, City were hit by a sucker punch when Donnarumma got a hand to Akliouche\u2019s effort but the ball looped high into the air 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.
\nDonnarumma saved a late Ferran Torres penalty to deny 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 up to a scandal that leaves their litany of trophies over the past 15 years open to question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom Paris Saint-Germain further soured the mood at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City\u2019s 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104416,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104393\/revisions\/104416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}