That sounds straightforward enough until you get to the part where Lamine Yamal briefly made it feel as if Barcelona might still bend the night their way. His finish from a narrow angle for 2-2 had the look of a turning point, the sort of goal that usually changes the emotional direction of a match between teams this aggressive. Instead, it drew out PSG’s clearest response.
Vitinha put PSG back in front after Yamal’s equaliser, and Fabian Ruiz added the fourth. That was the distinction once the game opened up. Barcelona had invention and moments. PSG had more force in the decisive stretches, and enough calm to keep attacking after being pulled back.
France24 described PSG as too powerful even for Yamal’s magic, and that is about right. This was not a spotless performance from the French side, but it was a strong one in the places that decide these matches: the reaction to setbacks, the use of space, the refusal to let the game drift after a swing against them.
There was also a cost to the win. France24 reported injuries to Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, which dulled some of the glow around the result. A team can announce itself with a scoreline like this and still walk away more fragile than it looked an hour earlier.
The game took place with a visible police presence outside the stadium, France24 said, against the backdrop of violent unrest across France. That did not shape the score, but it shaped the atmosphere around it.
For Barcelona, the harsher part is not simply the defeat but the way it arrived. An 11-game winning run can create the impression of control. PSG turned the match into something less orderly and looked stronger once it did.
The prettiest goal belonged to Yamal. The score belonged to PSG.
Marcus Azzopardi 
Dua Mifsud 
Sophia Borg