The first Manchester City vs. PSG match dates back to a football that no longer exists

Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain meet on Wednesday at 8pm UK time in the Champions League, with both clubs enjoying the consolidation of projects that have made their supporters accustomed to being favourites for Europe’s biggest prize every season.

They are billionaire clubs backed by two Middle East governments, serial winners, and two of the teams on the continent that have changed the most in the last 20 years.

It will be the ninth meeting between the two. Today it is another clash between heavyweights, with big, expensive squads. Two European football powers go head to head. But in 2008, in the first meeting between the English and French clubs, the story was very different.

How did the first meeting between Manchester City and PSG go?

It was 2008 and the two sides were in Group A of the UEFA Cup, the competition now known as the Europa League, a time that older supporters on both sides need to search their memories for. City made seven changes to their line-up, with Robinho dropping to the bench, Elano returning to the starting XI and Jo leading the attack.

It was the midfielder who made a good start, despite leaving the match at half-time after taking a knock. The former Corinthians striker, who was only 21 and did not leave fond memories in England, did not have a convincing display and was replaced midway through the second half by Ched Evans.

The City of Manchester Stadium had just over 25,000 supporters, well below its maximum capacity. The empty seats stood out even though it was a European fixture, albeit not in the Champions League. The match had few highlights. Both teams were uninspired, with shots flying off target in profusion.

The clear transformation of Manchester City and PSG

The line-ups of the two teams show how much has changed. There were good players for the context of the time on both sides, but more on the English side, which had already begun its policy of big (and expensive?) signings, with Robinho as the great symbol at the time.

The name of Vincent Kompany also stands out. He was perhaps the best value-for-money signing in City’s history. A defender, leader and reference point who accompanied the growth and transformation of an average team into a trophy-winning machine.

PSG vs. Manchester City line-ups:

Paris Saint-Germain: Landreau; Traore, Camara, Bourillon, Sakho; Pancrate, Makelele, Clement, Rothen; Luyindula, Kezman.

Manchester City: Hart; Zabaleta, Dunne, Ben-Haim, Garrido; Kompany; Vassell, Ireland, Elano, Sturridge; Jo.

How did they fare in the 2008-09 Europa League?

At the end of the group stage, Manchester City finished top of Group A, while PSG came third. Twente took second place. All three qualified, as the format was different at the time. The group also featured Racing Santander in fourth and bottom side Schalke, both of whom were eliminated.

Both PSG and Manchester City could have met again, but only in a potential final, which did not happen. In the knockout rounds, both enjoyed interesting runs but went out in the quarter-finals.

The French side comfortably beat Wolfsburg (5-1 on aggregate) and then Braga (a slim 1-0), but fell to Dynamo Kiev in the quarter-finals (a 0-0 draw in France and a crushing 3-0 defeat in Ukraine).

The English side overcame Copenhagen in a tough 4-3 aggregate win, beat AaB of Denmark on penalties after a 2-0 victory for each side (Elano converted his spot-kick), and were then knocked out by Hamburg (4-3 on aggregate), who had Paolo Guerrero, an opportunist who scored an important goal in Manchester.

Domestically, the performances of City and PSG were also a sign of the level at which both stood. Manchester City finished only 10th in the Premier League with 50 points, 40 fewer than champions and rivals Manchester United. PSG finished sixth in Ligue 1, well away from the title race, which Bordeaux won, and out of the running for a place in European competition.

City, PSG and the state-club projects

It was a match that shows the long road the two clubs have travelled with two super-ambitious projects. City had been bought months before the game by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a fund controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Three years later it was PSG’s turn to follow a similar path. The French capital club were acquired by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), linked to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.

They are two cases that illustrate the state-club strategy, with clubs controlled by funds directly tied to the royal families and governments of Gulf monarchies, with the aim of sportswashing and soft power.

The situation is different for City now. The Premier League found the club guilty at the end of September of using fictitious contracts with commercial partners to disguise more than £830m in secret funding, artificially inflating its revenue between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The club deny the charges and lodged an appeal last Friday. This could shake the foundations of City and of English football entirely.