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The Champions League came back strong Tuesday night, while Paris Saint-Germain silenced Old Trafford.
After a two-month hiatus between the group stage and the playoffs, the first match of the competition's business division will have reinforced Pep Guardiola's message to his Manchester City players regarding exactly what is needed to claim the trophy.
United has collected more points since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho, like no other Premier League team, and entered the match, brimming with optimism as he embarked in a great European evening.
On the other hand, PSG could well start again with the Ligue 1 but developed the same lack of fear that Arsenal keeps for the European teams and the wounds of Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Thomas Meunier let predict an victory on the outside.
It turns out however that Marco Verratti, Angel di Maria and Kylian Mbappe are still very useful players and that the French team has executed Thomas Tuchel's game plan much better than United's made by Solskja.
If that was the reality for United, it was a timely lesson for City as they prepare to resume their Champions League campaign. The Blues are leading the Premier League, despite costly loss of concentration against Chelsea, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Newcastle, but in Europe they will not have 34 games to rectify their mistakes.
In the words of his coach, "the Champions League consists of seven matches and [with] a bad game you are out. "
The fact that Mbappe is part of the Monaco non-Monegasque team having eliminated Guardiola's team from the competition in 2017 should be enough to keep in mind the trip to Germany next week, and the PSG performance – provided he can support him in the second leg. – was also catchy.
The city may have been the favorite to win the Champions League before the first draw. However, it is not the best team in Europe that necessarily wins the competition as much as the one that can bring everything together at the right time.
After working to a point in the league where there is still room for error, Guardiola will be determined that his team will be as clinical in their next three games as in their last match to refine their instinct for subsequent playoff games.
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