Manchester City exact revenge on PSG to seal top spot
Leipzig hammer Club Brugge
Manchester City came from behind to defeat Paris Saint Germain 2-1 in their UEFA Champions League Group A Matchday Five encounter at the Etihad Stadium, securing top spot for them in their group with one game to play.
Having fallen to a 2-0 defeat to Paris in the reverse leg, Manchester City were eager to make amends on their own turf and started the game very brightly.
The Cityzens moved the ball very quickly, hardly allowing their opponents to get a breather throughout the opening exchanges. The first chance for Manchester City came when Ilkay Gundogan teed up Oleksandr Zinchenko, who saw his goal-bound effort blocked.
Gundogan himself tried his luck some minutes later, only for another goal-line clearance to deny the German midfielder and keep the scores level. Gundogan again hit the woodwork for Manchester City as they cranked up the pressure on their superstar opposition.
Against the run of play, it was Paris Saint Germain that opened the scoring through French striker Kylian Mbappe. The 22-year-old got on the end of an intricate passing move involving Nuno Mendes, Lionel Messi and Neymar, before shooting low and hard through the legs of Ederson for the opener in the 50th minute.
PSG’s goal seemed to spur Manchester City as they attacked with a renewed intent and were rewarded for their persistence just 13 minutes later. Kyle Walker volleyed the ball across goal and saw the ball come off Gabriel Jesus to sit up perfectly for Raheem Sterling to hit an effort into the back of the net.
It took another 13 minutes, but Manchester City got their winner through substitute Jesus. The Brazilian striker was at the end of a brilliant cutback from Bernardo Silva and rolled a shot into the bottom corner of Keylor Navas’ net to put the home side ahead.
Manchester City held on for a brilliant 2-1 win that puts them in the Round of 16 as group winners as PSG also secured passage into the next round following RB Leipzig’s 5-0 thrashing of Club Brugge.
Christopher Nkunku scored twice, as did Emil Forsberg, and Andre Silva scored the other goal as Leipzig outclassed Club Brugge to end the Belgian side’s hopes of making it out of the group. Both sides are level on four points with one game left to play to determine who gets the Europa League slot.
