With 40 combined attempts on goal, Paris St-Germain ( PSG ) and Barcelona certainly put on a show. Kolkata: Civil unrest, not far from the Parc des Princes, didn’t warrant calling off the Champions League night. The show, you see, must go on.
Another 4-2 scoreline against a top team, another victory for the defending champions. Barcelona came to Paris with an all-win record after 11 matches in all competitions where they scored 48 goals. They may have released Robert Lewandowski, sold Ferran Torres to PSG for €50m and failed to buy Julian Alvarez but the goals have kept coming from Raphinha (14 in 9), Yamal (10) and everyone else. PSG have attackers good with both feet: Doue has, as per The Athletic, 46 shots with his right foot and 17 with his left since 2024-25 in the Champions League, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia can go both ways after cutting inside and Ousmane Dembele, who was injured early, is also two-footed. Juventus and Borussia Dortmund played a 4-4 draw on the first day of last season. Including PSG and Barcelona’s 7-2 wins, 2025-26 had seven matches with seven or more goals in the first phase. Match Day 2 this term had 46 goals. Tuesday saw 40 spread across nine matches.
Because a counter-attack, as slick as it was quick, had Ferran Torres hitting the upright before the ball was cleared, the corner-kick was forced. Nobody wins anything in October but PSG are a blend of grit and grace that had the measure of Manchester City away and Barcelona at home. League leaders in England and Spain were defeated by a team that is not on top in France. In Manchester, PSG were in control despite City’s goals. In Paris, Barcelona were the dominant side for a large part of the second half. Hernandez’s goal, rising and beating Anthony Gordon to a corner-kick in the 72nd minute, came against the run of play. That was the thing about this match. So good were the teams in attack that the balance of the tie could shift either way at any moment. Torres scored in the World Cup final and is loving the central attacking role when Dembele is not available. Two goals on the night came from PSG’s midfielders and they have defenders like Achraf Hakimi who is often found at the top of the rival penalty box. Early season Champions League games can be that. The new format leaves headroom for top teams to make the pre-quarter finals.
“We managed to react to that, and score goals when it mattered,” said Luis Enrique, PSG’s head coach. Barcelona equalised through Xavi Espart (55th), one of the four teenagers in their line-up on Tuesday, and again with a goal that from anyone else would be termed a fluke but since it is Lamine Yamal we are discussing, it can be a piece of magic we hadn’t seen before.
