Fallen giants PSG and Man City clash in Champions League game of sudden death
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Two clubs who made a habit of reaching the latter stages of the Champions League in recent years find themselves on the brink of elimination as they meet in the new-look competition. 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.
![[Manchester City have toiled in the Champions League this season]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/13/17/GettyImages-2183206476.jpg)
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.
![[PSG midfielder Fabian Ruiz has become key to Luis Enrique’s side]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/12/12/GettyImages-2175981618.jpg)
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.
