Raheem Sterling’s header from Kevin De Bruyne’s cross hit the crossbar and the ball fell to winger Bernardo Silva less than two metres out. But Silva somehow scooped the ball onto the bar with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma beaten.

Donnarumma and opposite number Ederson then made a smart save each in an even first half that De Bruyne was perhaps lucky to finish, receiving only a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Gueye’s shin.

Sterling dragged a shot wide early in the second half as City caught PSG’s defence asleep down the left.

Donnarumma then kicked away De Bruyne’s shot in the 54th as City exposed poor defending on the other flank as the Premier League champions took control.

PSG’s glittering attack looked flat, as it did in a 1-1 draw against Club Brugge. Neymar shot into the side netting midway through the second half, with Mbappe in a better position.

Then Messi lit up Parc des Princes with a glimpse of things to come, at the stadium where he scored his last Champions League goal for Barcelona last season.

PSG top Group A and are level with Club Brugge with four points. Club Brugge won 2-1 at last-placed Leipzig.

The start to life in the Champions League couldn’t be going much better for Moldovan club Sheriff, meanwhile.

Thill netted with a powerful shot into the top corner from the edge of the area to give Sheriff their second consecutive victory. They lead Group D with six points, three more than Madrid and five more than both Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan, who drew 0-0 in Ukraine in the other group match.

Sheriff beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 in their opener at home, while Madrid won 1-0 at Inter.

Sheriff are the first club from the Moldovan league to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League, although they are based in the breakaway region of Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent nation which isn’t recognised by any United Nations member state.

The club founded just over two decades ago is funded by the Sheriff company, which runs large parts of the economy in Transnistria and has strong political ties.

The visitors had rarely threatened until opening the scoring after a breakaway in the 25th, with Jasurbek Yakhshiboev finding the far corner with a firm header past Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Loading

A mistake by Courtois a few minutes later while trying to move the ball up the field nearly gave Sheriff another goal, with Yakhshiboev’s shot missing just wide of the post.

Benzema, Vinicius jnr, and Eden Hazard all had scoring chances as Madrid kept pressuring, but failed to capitalize on them while Sheriff threatened on counter-attacks.

Sheriff goalkeeper Giorgos Athanasiadis was named the player of the match for helping stop a Madrid attack that had more than 20 attempts.

“This is soccer,” Madrid midfielder Casemiro said. “We were in control during the entire match and had many scoring chances. They had only two and scored twice.”

AP, Reuters

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

• Watch Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo and football’s biggest superstars in the UEFA Champions League with every match streaming ad-free, live and on-demand only on Stan Sport. Start your 7-day free trial here.