Three musketeers strike but Jesus has last word

A MATCH billed as heavyweight contest produced the knockout blow many craved as Manchester City came from behind at the Etihad to floor fellow giants.

Yet after Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus levelled and passed Kylian Mbappe’s opener to put City in the knockout stages next year, the feeling that there could be a rematch further down the line was impossible to resist.

When the dust and the bruises settle there will be satisfaction from Pep Guardiola’s side who might well have taken the bout on points without Jesus’s late intervention.

It provided revenge for the first group meeting in

September which City bossed and lost.

Yet Mauricio Pochettino, right, will not be despondent and will feel his side can progress deep in this competition once more even if he may not relish meeting City again too soon.

For both City and Paris SaintGermain the pursuit of the Champions League has become like the search for the Grail, both dominating their domestic scenes to the point of boredom yet both having found Europe unconquerable. But after PSG and then City filled the runners-up berth in the last two seasons there seems little doubt that sooner rather than later that will be put right. And on the balance of last night’s play City look closer.

Despite missing two creatives in the self-isolating Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish – and further diminished by Phil Foden’s failure to recover from a knock sustained in City’s win over Everton – City swarmed over PSG. Much of it came through Riyad Mahrez and the tireless Bernardo Silva, but the visitors found themselves repelling wave after wave of attack in a completely onesided first half.S

Rodri had an early header cleared from under the bar by Presnel Kimpembe, Sterling a chance to volley only to take one touch too many, and Mahrez curled a shot goalwards after exchanging passes with Bernardo which Achraf Hakimi glanced over with a saving header. It was one-way traffic