PSG batter Man City 4-2 in Champions League as Paris pursue third straight European title
Paris St-Germain beat Manchester City 4-2 in a Champions League match in Manchester on Wednesday and are looking to win five pieces of silverware this season. The victory keeps PSG on course as back-to-back European champions seeking a third successive continental crown.
PSG took a 3-0 lead into half-time and still managed to add another goal despite a spirited Manchester City second-half fightback. Luis Enrique’s side had thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in the 2025 final and then squeezed past Arsenal on penalties in last season's showpiece game, and a third straight European triumph would make them the fifth team to achieve that since 1956 and only the second to do so in the Champions League era. The Parisians have been France’s dominant club since the arrival of Qatar Sports Investments 15 years ago and, after a change of approach under president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the club sought a different model: "It's the end of the glitter," Al-Khelaifi said, criticising the previous "flashy, bling-bling" period.
Commenting at half-time on BBC Radio 5 Live, Chris Sutton said: "This PSG team are on a different level. They have just run all over Manchester City, who haven't been able to string passes together. It's been an absolute pummelling for Man City." The match displayed a combination of quick interchanges, off-the-ball movement and incisive finishing that the article describes as a "ruthless blend of silky flicks and slick off-the-ball movement" leaving City frequently several frames behind.
Sutton added further praise as the game progressed: "Unbelievable. PSG, what a team," and: "PSG's press, I don't think there's another team that press with their intensity and ferocity. This [City] is one of the best teams in the Premier League getting an absolutely roasting. This is them [PSG] having a slow start to the season. Heaven help everyone." Those remarks underlined the intensity of PSG's press and the scale of their victory in Manchester.
Luis Enrique, who arrived at PSG in 2023, shifted the club’s recruitment and tactical profile by investing in younger players to be shaped by his system, a strategy the article credits with producing two Champions League titles. The back-to-back continental wins are cited as the result of that coherent team-building and discipline rather than the earlier era of high-profile spending.
The piece places PSG's current run alongside historic European dynasties to provide context. It recalls Helenio Herrera’s "Grande Inter," unbeaten in the European Cup when winning the 1962-63 title; Benfica’s success under Bela Guttmann, with Eusebio scoring 47 European Cup goals including two in the 1962 final; and Bayern Munich’s trio of successive European Cups in the 1970s built around Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller, with Beckenbauer later remarking Bayern were "past their peak" after the first win.
Other benchmarks cited include Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, built around La Masia graduates Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi and overseen by Guardiola, who "won the European Cup as a player with Barcelona and then twice as a manager, losing semi-finals to Inter and Chelsea either side of those triumphs"; AC Milan’s late-1980s and early-1990s dominance under Arrigo Sacchi and successors; Liverpool’s run of four European Cups between 1977 and 1984 under a succession of managers from Bill Shankly to Joe Fagan; Ajax’s three successive European Cups driven by Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff; and Real Madrid’s five consecutive European Cup wins from the competition’s start in 1955, featuring Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas, with Puskas scoring 35 goals in 39 European Cup games and four in the 1960 final at Hampden.
PSG now pursue a third consecutive European crown and the wider target of five pieces of silverware this season, objectives that will define whether their current run develops into a sustained dynasty. The match against Manchester City forms part of that campaign toward consecutive continental success.
