Paris Saint-Germain star Désiré Doué and manager Luis Enrique were full of praise for Manchester City after the French side won 4-2 at the Etihad Stadium, with both suggesting the European champions were fortunate not to concede more goals.
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Following a stunning win at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, Manchester City were arguably brought back down to earth by the UEFA Champions League holders in a humbling opening 45 minutes on Wednesday night.
Playing their first home game since being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules - and watched from the stands by former manager Pep Guardiola - City were picked apart by the visitors and trailed by three goals at the interval.
The second-half was an entirely different story, in which an impressive Manchester City squandered chance after chance, even as Erling Haaland scored a brace and Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a late, dreadful Ferran Torres penalty.
The eventual 2-4 scoreline, and the manner of a second-half fightback that fell just short of a miracle recovery, prompted the Paris Saint-Germain camp to praise their hosts after the match.
Luis Enrique: ‘Today we were lucky’
A trio of half-time substitutions by Enzo Maresca largely transformed Manchester City’s performance, and a stream of chances followed. Luis Enrique, whose side have been crowned kings of Europe two seasons in a row, watched on as goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and his defenders fought to keep their lead.
Speaking to TNT Sports, the Paris Saint-Germain boss suggested that the night could have ended very differently. “Man City created a huge amount of problems for us, and the team that lost today perhaps were a bit unlucky,” he said.
The Spaniard also credited the style of football Enzo Maresca is implementing at the Etihad Stadium, as he continued, “We could’ve lost this match if Man City scored the chances they created.
"It was a very nice match, the way they play is amazing, the way Enzo Maresca’s Man City play is really nice, and we like to play these kind of matches.”
“Today we were lucky,” he reiterated.
Doué hails Man City and Haaland
France international forward Désiré Doué was instrumental in dismantling the English side, opening the scoring inside 13 minutes and setting up a second for Ousmane Dembélé moments later.
However, the forward was himself full of gracious words for Manchester City and their support after the match, telling TNT Sports, “The atmosphere here was amazing.
“Man City is a very good team, they have a lot of very good players, the best player in the world like [Erling] Haaland, and he could’ve scored three, four goals today.”
Haaland struck twice after the break and saw a close-range sliding effort kept out by Matvey Safonov, putting in a tireless shift to become the club’s all-time leading UEFA Champions League goalscorer.
A first-half to forget for Maresca and City
Unfortunately for Manchester City, the damage was done early as Desire Doué’s low finish past Gianluigi Donnarumma and Ousmane Dembélé’s header had PSG two up in the blink of an eye, before Vitinha swept in a third to seemingly put the game out of reach.
City were a different proposition entirely after Enzo Maresca’s reshuffle, and while Erling Haaland halved the deficit with a flicked header from the excellent Iliman Ndiaye’s cross, Donnarumma could only help Maghnes Akliouche’s effort into his own net to restore a three-goal cushion, before the aforementioned Norwegian’s second set up a frantic finale.
There are nonetheless plenty of positives to take from the defeat, not least the admiration coming from the European champions, and they will point to a second-half that nearly had a very different scoreline.