Mark Langdon: Paris St-Germain are finally winning hearts

It ended as it always seems to end for Paris St-Germain in big Champions League matches but their extraordinary 1-0 defeat to Liverpool at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday felt very different from many of their other painful European nights.

For starters, this time it is not actually over and they will still feel there is a chance of overturning the deficit at Anfield on Tuesday despite being shoved out to 16-5 to qualify for the quarter-finals, even if PSG have rarely shown the mental fortitude required to thrive on such a difficult away trip.

When the going gets tough PSG get running away from the task at hand and such have been their limp departures that one website has managed to rank their top seven most embarrassing Champions League exits. The listicle includes last season's semi-final beating at the hands of unheralded Borussia Dortmund, a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Barcelona, the shame of losing on away goals to Manchester United, who went through thanks to a Marcus Rashford (remember him?) penalty, the loss of a two-goal advantage against Real Madrid with only 30 minutes remaining and the best of the lot – La Remontada in 2017.

The comeback of all comebacks from Barca to pull back a 4-0 deficit saw PSG lose 6-1 on the night and 6-5 on aggregate. They conceded three goals from the 88th minute onwards on a brutal night for the club. Some see it as the footballing gods putting a curse on PSG for winning the financial lottery following the Qatari takeover in 2011, an ownership which is controversial in its nature and not only because it has totally distorted France's domestic competition.

For the past decade or so, PSG and the Qataris have seemed to be more interested in fame than success. 

The intolerable Zlatan Ibrahimovic was one of the major faces of the PSG rebrand and David Beckham, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have all come for a party at the Parc without seeming that bothered about the football team as long as the Euros kept rolling in.

Off the pitch there is still a load of nonsense. There was a star-studded cast in the stands on Wednesday when Beckham was given almost as much camera time as Liverpool's brilliant goalkeeper Alisson and the picture agencies seemed more interested in Didi Stone than Didi Hamann. Stone has a famous singer for a dad (thanks Wikipedia) and is described as a social media personality, although the only social media personality I know is Big John and she definitely didn't look anything like him. Bosh indeed!

But for all of the hullabaloo still surrounding PSG, most of the noise is now coming on the pitch and Luis Enrique has built a seriously impressive young team that looks more capable of challenging for Champions League success than any of the previous incarnations.

They did hit the woodwork six times in last season's semi-final loss to Dortmund, so maybe that was the first hint of PSG getting closer, and they could not have been more impressive despite losing 1-0 to Liverpool, winning the shot count 27-2 and steering ten shots on target to the Reds' one. The corner tally was 14-2 in their favour and all with 71 per cent possession thanks to a classy midfield and three dribbling demons in attack.

The front trio of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele were unplayable and it was just Alisson being unbeatable that stopped PSG winning comfortably. Most impressive of all was a unit working together for the greater good of the team overall.

Whisper it quietly, but PSG are becoming quite likeable and that might make it more tolerable when they finally get their hands on the Champions League trophy. It probably won't be this season, but captain Marquinhos is the oldest player in the squad at 30 and PSG's new hungry heroes can go where the big names failed. 

Read more from Mark:

Best bets for every Champions League last-16 tie 

The numbers behind Burnley's remarkable defence 

Don't be sucked in by home and away form

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