The Parisians are back-to-back defending champions of course, and came into this season with a squad largely unchanged from the ones that lifted those consecutive European Cups.
And they ran rampant in their first two fixtures of this season’s tournament, overwhelming Slovan Bratislava 6-1 at the Parc des Princes on Matchday 1 before travelling to the Etihad and delivering a humbling 4-2 defeat to hosts Manchester City in their second match.
Both of those results hinted at another season of continental dominance for PSG, but Tuesday’s 4-2 thriller against Barcelona took things to another level.
Consider the statistics from Tuesday’s match.
PSG registered an astonishing 14 shots on target against the Blaugrana, forcing Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García into his best Superman impression as he made 10 saves on the night.
The Ligue 1 giants were able to do so despite holding just 46 percent of the possession, as they looked to force their visitors into costly mistakes in vulnerable areas of the pitch.
Even so, Barça were still able to create 20 shot attempts of their own, with nine of them hitting the target. PSG didn’t mind, as they absorbed most of what the La Liga side were able to throw at them, minus the two times that they found the back of the net.
In this battle of titans, it was almost assured that both teams would score.
Barça netted nine times in their two Champions League matches prior to this one, and had scored a staggering 39 times across nine La Liga fixtures so far.
They were going to get their goals.
Which is why the ease with which PSG were able to brush off those strikes with four goals of their own is so scary.
Dazn Media
The entire footballing world knows that the Parisians’ strength lies in their ridiculous depth of talent — especially in attack — and on Tuesday that depth was on full display.
Head coach Luis Enrique employed the familiar trio of Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué as starters against Barcelona, but by the hour mark two of those three had been forced off the pitch due to injury.
First it was Dembélé, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, who left the match after just 20 minutes with an apparent hamstring ailment.
Then it was Kvaratskhelia, arguably the best player to not take part in this year’s World Cup, who had to be helped off the field in tears in the 60th minute.
Those two men are responsible for much of what PSG have going forward, and yet their truncated participation did little to deter their team from going toe-to-toe with arguably the most in-form attacking side in the world.
The third part of PSG attacking trident, 21-year-old Doué, picked up where his fallen teammates had left off. The young France international struck for the game’s first goal in the 38th minute, then added an assist in the 72nd minute before subbing off six minutes later.
The player who scored on that Doué assist? Centre-back Lucas Hernandez, who was brought into the team as a left-back ahead of regular starter Lucas Digne.
PSG’s final two goals came from their enviable midfield, with the brilliant Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz putting the match to bed with their 81st and 86th-minute strikes, respectively.
Without Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia, Marquinhos (who went out at the same time as Kvaratskhelia, also with an apparent injury) and Nuno Mendes — four world class players who walk into almost every starting XI on the planet — PSG were still able to withstand the inevitable Barcelona onslaught and deliver a series of fatal counterpunches, propelling them to the top of the Champions League table.
That they did it with flair and style was expected, but to be able to roll out that kind of production against this particular Barça side sends a stark message to the rest of the contenders.
PSG is still the team to beat, and the Champions League goes through Paris.
Watch top class football live on DAZN
DAZN streams some of the world’s best and biggest football leagues and cup competitions, subscribe to watch…
- UK subscribers: Every game live of the Serie A season; Every match of the National League live and/or on-demand
- US subscribers: Every game of the Serie A season; Three Champions League matches per round (in Spanish)
- Canadian subscribers: Every match of this season’s Premier League and Champions League
- FIFA+ on DAZN: Watch over 7,000 live matches a year, World Cup archive, iconic documentaries, films, and player profiles for FREE
