Lucas Hernández, pushed into Nuno Mendes’ absent left-back slot, spent the first hour neutralising the player most of Europe is still trying to work out how to stop. He won duels, cut off the inside lane and forced Lamine Yamal into the pass that Désiré Doué turned into PSG’s opening goal in the 38th minute.

By the break, WhoScored had Yamal as the lowest-rated player on the pitch. L’Équipe would later run with the same verdict in print.

Then the picture changed.

Xavi Espart levelled in the 55th minute. Hernández put PSG back in front with a header from a corner on 72 minutes. Seven minutes later, with substitute Warren Zaïre-Emery on the left flank, Yamal cut inside and curled a finish past Matvey Safonov with the outside of his boot for 2-2.

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One moment is still a Champions League goal

Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz then settled the tie in the final nine minutes, and PSG moved to nine points from three league-phase matches, their third straight Champions League win. Barcelona lost for the first time this season after 11 consecutive victories.

The headline, picked up in L’Équipe and across the Spanish press, was that Yamal had failed. The raw line, however, is a 19-year-old scoring away at the holders against the defender charged specifically with marking him out of the game.

The flaws were real. Yamal gave the ball away cheaply for the opener, lost a stream of first-half duels and offered little in the final third until the hour mark. Désiré Doué, scorer of PSG’s opener, was named man of the match by Sports Mole, which also had PSG with 22 shots to Barcelona’s 18 across the night.

Flick points at the schedule, not the forwards

Hansi Flick did not single any Barcelona player out, Yamal included. He pointed instead at a weekend trip to Seville that had cost the squad a night of recovery.

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“It’s October, and you don’t win titles in October; the Champions League is won in June,” Flick told reporters.

“We tried to defend against them, we did it well, but in those last fifteen minutes we weren’t fresh.”

Barcelona sit on six points after three league-phase matches, three behind PSG at the top.

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