PSG have claimed a 3-1 win over Manchester United in what was an enthralling contest at Old Trafford.
The result means PSG, United and Leipzig are all on nine points heading into the last match-day next week.
United must at least draw with RB Leipzig to secure a place in the knockout rounds as they are ahead of goal difference.
It was the Parisians who started on the front foot in Manchester, knowing that they needed to win after Leipzig defeat Basaksehir earlier in the night.
Neymar opened the scoring after eight minutes when a lucky deflection gave him space inside the box to fire past David De Gea from a narrow angle.
The Red Devils were extremely fortunate to still have eleven players on the pitch after Fred pushed his head into Leandro Paredes.
The referee consulted with VAR but somehow only brandished a yellow card for the Brazilian.
PSG‘s intensity died down and United eventually were rewarded with a deflected equaliser from Marcus Rashford, ruled as an own goal from Danilo Pereira.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must have given his players a pep-up at half-time as United came firing out of the blocks.
It should have been 2-1 for the hosts but Anthony Martial skied an absolute sitter after some neat inter-play between Rashford and Edinson Cavani.
Shortly after, Cavani hit the bar with a cheeky lob over Keylor Navas and Martial’s rebound was blocked fantastically by the PSG defence.
But it was Thomas Tuchel’s side who took the lead when Marquinhos benefitted from a pinball in the box by poking the ball past De Gea.
It went from bad to worse for United when Fred was sent-off for a second yellow card, leaving Solskjaer to rue his decision for not substituting the midfielder at half-time.
The final nail in the coffin came in injury-time from Neymar, who finished a superb counter attack with a close range finish.
Prolific Rashford but poor home form – the stats
- The away side have won all four Uefa Champions League matches between Manchester United and Paris St-Germain. Excluding games played at neutral venues, it’s the first fixture in the competition’s history to see the first four meetings all won by the away side.
- Manchester United have now lost more of their eight home games in all competitions this season (4) than they did in 28 matches at Old Trafford last term (3).
- Manchester United have lost four of their past seven Champions League home games (W3), as many as in their previous 52 matches beforehand.
- PSG have won both of their past two away matches against English opposition in all competitions (both v Man Utd); they had only won one of their first 10 such visits before this (D4 L5).
- Both of Manchester United’s last two Champions League red cards have come at home to PSG (Pogba the other in February 2019) – their only two such meetings with the French side.
- Man Utd’s Fred was the 49th different Brazilian player to receive a Champions League red card; only France has had more different players sent off in the competition’s history (55).
- At 05:45, Neymar’s opener for PSG was the earliest Champions League goal conceded by Manchester United since September 2015, when Daniel Caligiuri scored against them after 03:53 for Wolfsburg.
- Since his Uefa Champions League debut in 2013, only Cristiano Ronaldo (79), Robert Lewandowski (60) and Lionel Messi (59) have more goals in the competition than PSG’s Neymar (38). However, his double was the Brazilian’s first goals in his six Champions League matches away to English clubs.
- Marcus Rashford has scored more goals in five Uefa Champions League games for Man Utd this season (6) than he managed in 18 appearances in the competition across his two previous seasons, 2017-18 and 2018-19 (5).
- Rashford is the first Man Utd player to score in all three of their home games in a single group stage in the Uefa Champions League since Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2004-05. Indeed, he is just the second Englishman to score six Champions League goals in a single group stage for any side, after Harry Kane in both 2017-18 and 2019-20 (six in both).
