The result was emphatic enough by the end, but the more durable fact from the night is the one PSG confirmed afterward. Kvaratskhelia, making his first start of the season in the competition, was injured in a challenge with Xavi Espart and came off in the 59th minute unable to put weight on his right leg.
PSG were still level at 2-2 heading into the final 10 minutes before scoring twice late on to maintain their winning start to their title defence. They sit top of the table with three wins from three matches. Yet once Kvaratskhelia went down, the match acquired a different proportion. A 4-2 win can tidy a table; it does not tidy an ACL rupture.
Kvaratskhelia has been a significant part of PSG’s recent rise since joining from Napoli in January 2025, helping the club win back-to-back Champions League titles. At 25, he is now facing the kind of interruption that reorganises a season around rehab rather than rhythm.
In a statement on Instagram, he wrote: “Before every game I play I ask God to leave the field healthy, but in vain.
“I probably prepared for this game the best I have ever prepared for. I thought I was prepared for everything.
“I realise that God chose me and if I protected the players on another field, I'm ready to go through these months of hard work, pain, tears.
“I know I have to come back stronger for my people who always have my back. I won't let you down, I promise, I won't waste a second.”
There is enough in those lines without adding sentiment on top of them. The player knows the scale of it, and so does the club. PSG lose a winger who can stretch a match quickly and alter it even faster.
The problem is not confined to one player either. PSG also confirmed that Ousmane Dembele and Marquinhos will be absent for a “few weeks”. Dembele limped off with a left thigh injury, while Marquinhos injured his right thigh. What looked like a strong European night now also reads as a costly one.
Isla Camilleri 
Dua Mifsud 
Gabriel Fenech