September 29, (THEWILL) – On a momentous night at the Parc des Princes, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi scored his first-ever goal as Paris Saint-Germain avenged Manchester City with a 2-0 victory on matchday two of their Group A fixture.
In a rematch of the semi-final between these two European heavyweights from last season, PSG took the lead after eight minutes when Idrissa Gueye finished with an incredible shot into the top corner.
The rest of a tense first half belonged to City, who somehow failed to square the scores despite hitting the crossbar twice in the blink of an eye, with Raheem Sterling heading against the crossbar before Bernardo Silva suffered the same misfortune, trying to convert the follow-up.
After the restart, Sterling, who had been selected ahead of Gabriel Jesus, pulled a shot wide of goal as City continued to exert pressure.
When Messi, who had been eerily quiet up to this point, scored a trademark goal, sliding through the middle before receiving a return ball from Kylian Mbappe and curling it past the rooted Ederson, Pep Guardiola’s team would have been kicking themselves over their squandered opportunities.
The life was sucked out of City by that historic moment, and the visitors never seemed to recover. Mauricio Pochettino’s side therefore took the lead of Group A on four points, the same as Club Brugge, which beat RB Leipzig 2-1 in Germany.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
