PSG beat Man City 4-2 in Champions League thriller

Paris St-Germain are eyeing a third successive Champions League crown after dismantling Manchester City, but where do they rank against Europe's most dominant clubs? Image source, Getty Images Image caption, PSG are looking to win five pieces of silverware this season By Alex Bysouth, BBC Sport senior journalist and Alex Brotherton, BBC Sport journalist Published 3 hours ago Some find success sweet but fleeting, others spend years building to the pinnacle, and then there are those whose lasting glory evolves into a dynasty. After tearing Manchester City apart in large spells of their 4-2 Champions League victory on Wednesday, Paris St-Germain look well on track to join the latter bracket.

The back-to-back European champions sliced through City with astonishing ease to take a 3-0 lead into half-time, and were still able to score another despite a spirited second-half fightback from the Premier League leaders. After obliterating Inter Milan 5-0 in the 2025 final before squeezing past Arsenal on penalties in last season's showpiece game, Luis Enrique's side are aiming to win a third consecutive European crown. They would be the fifth team to do so going back to 1956, and just the second in the Champions League era.

"This PSG team are on a different level," Chris Sutton told BBC Radio 5 Live at half-time. "They have just run all over Manchester City, who haven't been able to string passes together. It's been an absolute pummelling for Man City." To mark PSG's latest display of attacking excellence, we're looking at how the Parisians compare to those clubs who have enjoyed the most dominant eras in European competition.

Some will point out that football existed before the European Champion Clubs' Cup began in 1955 – so apologies to Stan Cullis' 'world-champion' Wolves outfit and the Mitropa Cup's early Vienna heavyweights. This top 10 debate is centred around winning European football's grandest prize. Paris St-Germain 2025-present OK, straight in with the current champions, because this is a dynasty in the making.

PSG score three first-half goals, but an Erling Haaland brace nearly drags Manchester City back into the match. Listen (3 mins) Save Share PSG beat Man City 4-2 in Champions League thriller on social media Share Add on Google Paris Saint-Germain's Marquinhos celebrates after team-mate Maghnes Akliouche scores their side's fourth goal during the Champions League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on October 14, 2026 [Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images] By AFP Published On 14 Oct 2026 14 Oct 2026 Paris Saint-Germain further soured the mood at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City’s first home game since the guilty verdict on widespread flouting of Premier League financial rules ended in a 4-2 Champions League defeat on Wednesday.

The European champions turned on the style to strike three times inside the opening 35 minutes through Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 What led Manchester United’s Martinez to meltdown in Madrid – all to know list 2 of 4 Barcola scores hat-trick as Liverpool hit LASK for six, Feyenoord beat Como list 3 of 4 Real Madrid’s Vinicius banned for Clasico after hair-pull red card list 4 of 4 Ronaldo’s among three Saudi Arabia games postponed due to Houthi attacks end of list But City stormed back in the second half as Erling Haaland scored twice on either side of Maghnes Akliouche’s strike, which briefly restored PSG’s three-goal cushion.

The 10-time English champions face swingeing sanctions unless they can successfully appeal last month’s ruling by an independent commission, which found the club guilty on more than 100 charges of financial impropriety. City shrugged off the uncertainty over their future to win 3-0 at Liverpool on Sunday and remain top of the Premier League, but PSG showed why they are the favourites to win this competition for a third consecutive season.

Former City manager Pep Guardiola returned to the Etihad for the first time since his departure in May, sitting behind the club’s embattled chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and CEO, Ferran Soriano, in a show of solidarity. City made passing reference to the guilty verdict with a lengthy pre-match video detailing the club’s historic moments of celebration both before and after an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover in 2008 that transformed their fortunes.

Behind one end, supporters unfurled a giant banner reading: “I’m City till I die.”.

Paris St-Germain are hoping to enter that bracket and the 4-2 win against Manchester City on Wednesday reminded the rest of Europe why you shouldn't bet against them becoming continental champions for a third successive season. PSG had a lacklustre start to the domestic season – they always do, don't they?

But has an uncanny ability to click into gear when it matters. In Manchester, Luis Enrique's side were at their unstoppable best.

A ruthless blend of silky flicks and slick off-the-ball movement that saw a dazed City caught several frames behind. PSG, what a team," Sutton said.

"PSG's press, I don't think there's another team that press with their intensity and ferocity. "This [City] is one of the best teams in the Premier League getting an absolutely roasting.

This is them [PSG] having a slow start to the season. Heaven help everyone." The Parisians have been France's most dominant force since the arrival of Qatar Sports Investments 15 years ago, but it took a change of approach for the holy grail of continental success to arrive.

"It's the end of the glitter," professed president Nasser Al-Khelaifi after years of lavish spending, ushering out the "flashy, bling-bling" era. Instead, Enrique arrived in 2023 intent on building a coherent team.

There was still significant investment, but on younger players who could be moulded by his philosophy and discipline while given room to flourish. The result was two scintillating Champions League triumphs.

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, PSG thrashed Inter 5-0 to win their first Champions League in 2025 Guardiola's return, Man City's defiance – and a game of glorious chaos Published 1 hour ago Inter Milan 1963-65 Talking of discipline. Helenio Herrera, the Argentine-born defender reared in Casablanca and Paris, had already traversed the dugouts of Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Deportivo and Barcelona before landing in Milan in 1960.

Herrera set about implementing his tactical brand of catenaccio at San Siro – one he insisted is misremembered as being more defensive than it actually was – and developing a ruthless counter-attacking team known as 'Grande Inter'. Winning the Scudetto in 1962-63, Herrera's outfit became the first to lift the European Cup without losing a game the following season as Sandro Mazzola netted twice against Real Madrid in the final.