Manchester City had won eight in a row and were top of the Premier League. Paris Saint-Germain were three up at the Etihad by half-time and won 4-2. It was City's first defeat of the season and, according to Opta, the first time they have ever conceded four in a European home game.
Two minutes
City started well, by Maresca's account. Then Fabián Ruiz found Désiré Doué and he beat Gianluigi Donnarumma at his near post from outside the box on 13 minutes. Two minutes later Doué crossed and Ousmane Dembélé headed in from the right of the six-yard box.
"Then we conceded the first one and after one minute or two minutes, we conceded a second one," City manager Enzo Maresca said. "When you're on the pitch, you know that it's already difficult against them and then you think oh my god, we are 2-0 down now."
Vitinha made it three on 32, from Warren Zaïre-Emery's pass. City were 3-0 down at home at half-time for the first time since January 2012.
Maresca's changes
Maresca made three changes at the break. Iliman Ndiaye came on for Jérémy Doku, Matheus Nunes for Rúben Dias, and Ayyoub Bouaddi for Rayan Cherki.
It worked. On 53 minutes Ndiaye crossed and Erling Haaland headed in. That was his 37th Champions League goal for City, one more than Sergio Agüero, which makes him the club's record scorer in the competition.
PSG answered on 62. Maghnes Akliouche shot from outside the box, Donnarumma got a hand to it, and the ball looped up and spun back into the net. Haaland scored again on 75 from Bouaddi's pass, his 38th for the club in 41 Champions League games.
Donnarumma against PSG
Donnarumma, who won the Champions League with PSG in 2025 and was let go months later, had the last word against his old club. Nunes caught Nuno Mendes in the box late on and the referee gave a penalty, confirmed by VAR. Ferran Torres, on as a substitute against his own former club, rolled it towards the bottom right corner and Donnarumma saved it.
City finished with 27 shots, nine on target, against PSG's 15 and ten. Both goalkeepers made six saves.
What they said
Maresca thought his side deserved more. "I think in the second half, we did enough to deserve something more," he said. "My feeling is that we are there, we are close. Luis at the end told me that they have been quite lucky."
Luis Enrique did not entirely disagree. "La première mi-temps a montré ce que nous voulons faire en tant qu'équipe. On a été très supérieur," he said: the first half showed what we want to be as a team, we were far superior. "Tu penses que le match est gagné à 3-0 à la mi-temps, et on a souffert en 2e mi-temps. On aurait pu perdre dans ce match." You think it is won at 3-0 at half-time, and we suffered in the second half. We could have lost this game.
"When you win 3-0 at the half-time, you can think you can relax but this is the highest level," Doué said. "We have to be better defensively."
Dembélé, criticised for taking a holiday during the international break, had a reply ready. "Ça fait dix ans qu'on me critique, ça ne va pas changer," he told Canal+. People have criticised me for ten years, that is not going to change. "Je vais peut-être demander d'autres vacances si c'est possible." Maybe I will ask for another holiday if possible.
The table
PSG have ten goals from their first two games, after beating Slovan Bratislava 6-1, the most any team has scored in the opening two matches of a campaign. They have six points. City won 2-0 at Porto on the opening night and have three.
