If Barcelona and injuries can't stop PSG's pursuit of a Champions League three-peat, can anyone?

Even with Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia forced off, the back-to-back champions relied on suffocating intensity and late goals to prove the gap to the rest of Europe remains wide The three-peat is on. Manchester City, Barcelona, injuries to key players: none of these can stop Paris Saint-Germain. Who or what else can? In the space of six days the back-to-back champions have produced passages on a par with anything that took them to glory in 2025 and 2026. Not complete performances, it should be said, but maybe that is what makes them so scary. They are a team that has so many different ways of winning. Once famed for their wastefulness, they spent half an hour at the Etihad last week showing they can make ball go goal from any angle at any moment.

Tonight they took Barcelona's famed press and showed them what a throttling intensity really feels like. Eight times they recovered possession in the attacking third. Barca defenders aren't used to 75% pass completion around their own penalty area but any time the ball went to the full backs they were surrounded by blue shirts. PSG could bully-ball Barcelona, Lucas Hernandez rag dolling Anthony Gordon off a set piece and thundering a header in to put his side 2-1 up. One of the underrated qualities of