Fallen giants PSG and Man City clash in Champions League game of sudden death | OneFootball

It was, it seemed, the future of the Champions League. Except for a couple of details. One was that, due to Covid, the Etihad Stadium was deserted. And the other was that, in May, the ground staff still had to shovel the hailstones off the pitch. So it was scarcely the picture of glamour the fixture list suggested.

But in other respects, that 2021 showdown looked the shape of things to come: a semi-final between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. For some, it was Abu Dhabi against Qatar; for others, a battle of the rising forces, the nouveaux riches who were coming to dominate their domestic leagues. PSG had reached the final of the previous season’s Champions League. City were to succeed them as runners-up after a last-four meeting decided by a Parisian, Riyad Mahrez.

That told a tale in itself. Even as PSG looked to import the game’s biggest stars, they overlooked much of the talent produced in their own backyard. It could prove their undoing: Bayern Munich’s 2020 final winner came courtesy of another boy from the banlieue, in Kingsley Coman. The newer PSG, shorn of Lionel Messi and Neymar, while also losing the local lad Kylian Mbappe, seem constructed as a reaction to their past.

Almost four years on, City have won the Champions League. PSG have not. They played in the semi-finals again in May, losing to Borussia Dortmund. City, the defending champions, exited in the quarter-finals on penalties to Real Madrid. Each felt a cruelty in the outcome but they were constants in the conversation, teams invariably found in the knockout stages.

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Manchester City have toiled in the Champions League this season (Getty)

Until now? The most high-profile game this week has come with an unexpected threat. PSG may have welcomed the new format for the competition, assuming it gave them a guarantee of progress. “Last season we had to fight until the last match to get through the group of death,” said manager Luis Enrique, after they were pitted against AC Milan, Newcastle and Dortmund. City, who had won their pool in seven consecutive seasons, seemed immune to autumn upsets in Europe. The worst-case scenario for them appeared to be the quarter-finals.

Yet two of the superclubs are now scrambling to get into the top 24. The champions of France and England kick off in 26th and 24th place, respectively. “The match comes at a tough time in terms of the league,” added Luis Enrique. “We have seven points and they have eight. I don’t think anyone could predict Manchester City would have this number of points ahead of matchday seven.”

And City, while taking a lone point from their last three games, still have one more than PSG. It puts Luis Enrique’s team in greater danger. Lose at the Parc des Princes and their campaign could be over before next week’s trip to Stuttgart. Or that could take on the look of a showdown. PSG are, in effect, into sudden-death territory. “The most important match, I hope, is not the one against Manchester City,” said Luis Enrique. “I hope it will be one in the next phase.”

Where, he thinks, they should be. The Spaniard feels his side deserved to win their home matches against PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid, arguing that they should have five more points and already have a play-off place booked. Yet if PSG are suffering from being given possibly the toughest draw of all, and are unbeaten in Ligue Un, the season so far has exposed faultlines at both clubs. It explains why their January is significant on and off the pitch. They have been spending like superclubs, perhaps seeking to make amends for their earlier inactivity in the market.

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PSG midfielder Fabian Ruiz has become key to Luis Enrique’s side (Getty)

PSG have made arguably the statement signing of the month, the €70m (£59.2m) buy of Kvicha Kvaratskhelia; maybe it is an admission that, since Mbappe left, they have felt short of stardust. The Georgian is not a direct replacement, nor will he be charged with replicating Mbappe’s contribution. “I don’t think any of our players have shown they can score 25 goals so we have resolved that as a team,” said Luis Enrique.

City, though, have a man who can get 25 goals and more, committing Erling Haaland to a contract until 2034. Meanwhile, Luis Enrique’s friend and former Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola has bought two centre-backs in as many days, first Abdukodir Khusanov and then Vitor Reis for a combined €70m. Like Kvaratskhelia, neither will debut on Wednesday, with each ineligible until the knockout stages one club may yet sit out.

Because, so far, they have only beaten the two lowest-ranked teams each has faced: Girona and RB Salzburg for PSG, Slovan Bratislava and Sparta Prague for City. It amounts to a wretched return for the sides who began the tournament ranked fourth and first respectively in the Uefa coefficients. Now, outperformed by clubs with lower budgets, whose rise cannot be attributed to nation states, they may settle for coming 24th and 21st when the alternative is far worse. “I would like to keep playing in the Champions League in February, of course,” said Ousmane Dembele. It was a statement of the obvious and yet remarkable. Because when the competition began, there was no question either club would be ejected from it in January.