Real Madrid, mediocre without Bale and Benzema, were outplayed by PSG, who had many chances.
The only goal came from bearded left back Nacho, on for the injured Marcelo, in 35.
But the visitors played very well and had many chances.
In Seville, Manchester City played aggressive speed-football right from the kick-off and scored two early goals through Sterling and Fernandinho.
Raheem is very fast, agile, resilient and brave.
But he doesn’t trust his left foot enough. Here he did, firing low from a narrow angle at the near post to score the goal that has been eluding him.
When he set up Bony for a shot, the keeper parried and Fernandinho headed in for 2-0 in 15 minutes.
Pellegrini used an odd 4-1-4-1 formation but his tactics were wholly vindicated.
Without Aguero and Silva, he left De Bruyne on the bench to start Jesus Navas against his old club and that worked.
Navas fired a nasty skidding shot which the keeper had to tip onto the post to prevent 3-0 and after Sevilla got a goal back, Navas set up Bony beautifully for 3-1
Sevilla had more possession but City had 22 shots and 11 on target.
Raheem found his best game at last and that first CL goal is huge for him.
Sevilla had never been beaten at home in the Champions League until last night.
So Manchester City, so often clueless in the Group Stage, especially when diva Mancini was in charge, have now qualified on Matchday 4.
It would be big fun if City played Real Madrid in the knock-out stage.
Why? Because of the back-story from five years ago.
In March 2010, after Madrid were KO’d by Lyon in the Round-of-16, Florentino Pérez told Pellegrini he’d be fired if he did not win La Liga .
Pellegrini then collected 96 points, the highest total that Real Madrid had ever achieved in a La Liga season up to that point. But they still finished second behind Barcelona on 99.
On 26 May 2010, Real announced that Pellegrini was to be replaced by Jose Mourinho, but that they would have kept him if the opportunity to hire Mourinho had not arisen.
Pellegrini was not allowed to build a team at Real Madrid due to Perez’s appetite for galacticos.
He said, “I didn’t have a voice or a vote at Madrid. They sign the best players, but not the best players needed in a certain position. It’s no good having an orchestra with the 10 best guitarists if I don’t have a pianist.
“Real Madrid have the best guitarists, but if I ask them to play the piano they won’t be able to do it so well. He sold players that I considered important. We didn’t win the Champions League because we didn’t have a squad properly structured to be able to win it.”
PS. Hope to post quick Arsenal preview this afternoon.