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 this glamor outfit is the belligerence with which they hold their last line. When Fermin Lopez burst through it in the first half, Willian Pacho would not give up the chase. If he had to take a boot to the face to keep the ball out then so be it. Everywhere you looked PSG were chasing lost causes.

Don't let the scoreline trick you. What briefly looked like a your-ball, my-ball exhibition ascended into a brawl in a rooftop bar, a cocktail of muscularity and skill. The haymakers these two swung at each other left their mark. Dani Olmo lasted just 27 minutes for Barcelona, and by the hour, PSG had lost both Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. For the former it had the look of yet another hamstring injury but there will be serious concern about what appeared to be a knee injury for Kvaratskhelia after his clash with Xavi Espart.

When we ask what might stop PSG joining the true greats of the continent with three straight European Cups, the obvious answer is that Kvaratskhelia's injury is as serious as it looks, that even with obsessive micromanagement of their minutes neither Nuno Mendes nor Dembele make it to the spring unscathed. On the evidence of tonight, it is not a given that that stops this team. Ferran Torres might not have scored but he did what Barcelona knew he can do at the highest of levels, get good shots in the box.

Hernandez, a World Cup winner blighted by injuries, was perfectly suited to the muscularity required to defend Yamal. He did not get it perfect; no one can reasonably be expected to do so against the best forward in the world. However he held out for long enough that it took something quite remarkable to bring Barcelona level.

While this was a game won in the last 10 minutes, Vitinha volleying low past Joan Garcia before Fabian converted an Achraf Hakimi cross at the back post, PSG had made their point long before. They had kept on through the loss of those two star forwards. Barcelona had had their moments but the hosts had had the territory, the shots, the momentum. They had had nothing to prove and yet they did anyway. If the mentality of champions can shine through in what is fundamentally a low-stakes encounter for two teams who can cruise to the top eight should they feel it is necessary. PSG so often don't.

As for their opponents, they could point to their own absences as having a telling impact. Raphinha was on the team sheet but the Raphinha seemed to still be dealing with the hamstring injury that he picked up over the international break. Rodri's heavy workload in that time also meant that he was rested, a decision Hansi Flick might have regretted in more pressurized circumstances. Breaking that PSG press requires the most adept of ball player at the base of midfield. If these two meet again the veteran midfielder could be the ace in the hole. 

Neutrals will hope they do. This was a better contest than required and came even as so many on both sides were off color. Not just Raphinha but Yamal too lacked punchiness. Vitinha was not quite himself either. And still PSG found a way to win. As if the rest of Europe needed any further warning, the supposed next best have just discovered how big the gap is to the champs.