There was an air of defiance about Manchester City, an arrogance that comes naturally to those who have developed a false sense of victimhood. Then again, they were not exactly wrong to boast some level of confidence – even if the Premier League found them guilty of 115 financial breaches, City had assembled a team that would at the very least contend in matches worth watching, even if the results could become invalidated in the not-too-distant future. City's supporters, Pep Guardiola included, filled Etihad Stadium on Wednesday with an expectation that the players on the pitch would not sour the mood, no matter that the guilty verdict suggests the collection of talent should not actually be there.
Instead, what the stubborn onlookers got was a dose of reality.
In some ways, it is not a surprise that back-to-back UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain would use Wednesday's game as another opportunity to assert their dominance with a 4-2 win. Their unique brand of dynamism is still a defining feature, one that is still hard to beat two years after manager Luis Enrique's tactical reinvention. Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue are still impressively clinical, Vitinha still amongst the world's best in midfield. What was genuinely impressive, though, is that they were unflinching on a day that tested City's sporting construction.
The hosts ultimately outshot PSG 27 to 15, racking up 2.5 expected goals while the European champions only tallied up 1.83. City's end product matched their efforts, Erling Haaland once again assuming cheat code mode with a brace that kept his side in the game while becoming the club's top goalscorer in the competition. Their defensive resolve failed the tests PSG posed time and time again on Wednesday, though, defined by a mistake-ridden performance from goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The Italy international has always been a respectable option in goal but at 27 years old, he does not seem on pace to become one of his generation's top options. His inability to respond to Doue's opener in the 13th minute and Dembele's goal two minutes later was surprising, almost single-handedly digging his team into a hole they could barely dig themselves out of. It was a recurring theme over the course of 90 minutes, even as he saved Ferran Torres' tame penalty in the 90th minute.
Donnarumma was hardly the only person to blame for City's woes on Wednesday. Head coach Enzo Maresca opted to use Elliot Anderson as the lone player in midfield while just about everyone in front of him took a more advanced position, an imbalanced approach that was misguided from the start. It did not get the best out of anyone, PSG taking a 3-0 lead by halftime while City took just six shots and mustered 0.79 expected goals at that point.
Maresca's halftime decision to bring on Ayyoub Bouaddi for Jeremy Doku and offer Anderson some assistance in midfield was to City's benefit but at that point, it was far too late. There was not much left to salvage despite a valiant effort, headlined by Haaland.
Guardiola made a quick trip to Manchester to be a supportive figure but in the end, his shadow loomed large. The generous read of Maresca's tactical mistakes to start is that he borrowed Guardiola's famous overthinking habit for Wednesday's marquee matchup but in actuality, the new City boss does not have the reputation just yet to afford that kind of benefit of the doubt. Even then, Guardiola's ability to overthink was not the type of thing that would prevent someone from pointing out when he got something wrong and even if Maresca is the right successor, there is no reason to stop short of saying his choices were costly on Wednesday.
It was not the only way Guardiola's legacy hung over the Etihad, though. He receives a hero's welcome time and time again in that part of Manchester because he stewarded a superteam with his new position in the stands rather than on the pitch, the clearest sign as any that those days are a thing of the past. City's post-Guardiola rebuild means the team is still very much a work in progress, the team not favorites to win the biggest titles in front of them for the time being.
It makes City fans' defiance all the more intriguing. While opposing fans expertly spent the prolonged international break successfully making Oasis puns to sell the point, a sign reading "What's the story? Tainted glory" at Anfield on Sunday, all City supporters could come up with was worship for club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. They have rallied around an executive and a series of businesspeople rather than the players on the pitch, all while erasing their actual case as victims – these are the very people who tarnished what should be the happiest sporting experiences, and ultimately what should be a storied chapter in the English game.
The funniest part, though, is that for all of City's advantages, Guardiola's tenure looks more and more like magic in a bottle. Watching Donnarumma's slow response to Doue, another beneficiary of a nation-state's backing, it was hard not to ask: This is all City could come up with after all their efforts to work around the Premier League's financial systems?
