Ruben Dias was absolutely heroic as Manchester City reached their first-ever Champions League final on Tuesday night.After all the defensive woes of their 2019–20 campaign, Pep Guardiola needed to ensure that he spent the Citizens' cash wisely last summer - and he seems to have hit the jackpot with Dias.Make no mistake, you'd expect value for money when you're spending £62.1 million on a centre-back, but City haven't always struck gold when they've dipped into their war chest for a defender.

Dias shines in PSG win

But if ever there was a night that Dias - who is now valued at £63 million - proved his worth to the soon-to-be Premier League winners then it was the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with Paris Saint-Germain.

Riyad Mahrez will ultimately hoover up most of the column inches for scoring both goals in the 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium, but Dias was truly the key contributor to the home side's triumph.

And he was rewarded as such, too, because Dias was presented with the Man of the Match award for a heroic display that saw him constantly putting his body on the line for Guardiola's cause.

"WHAT A TEAM"! Man City Fan is over the moon! (Football Terrace)

Dias' dominating statistics

According to ESPN, the former Benfica man completed 100% of his tackles, maintained 90% passing accuracy, completed three clearances and made three blocks.

All that, and PSG weren't able to muster a single shot on target in Manchester despite Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Mauro Icardi all taking to the snowy pitch.

Now, it's worth saying that Kyle Walker, Oleksandr Zinchenko and John Stones were also superb on the night, but forgive me for thinking that Dias' individual highlights were simply too good to ignore.

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Dias' MOTM highlights vs PSG

Twitter user @lacomps has brilliantly stitched together Dias' best bits against PSG, including two of the most remarkable blocks, to the tune of more than 2,600 retweets at the time of writing.

And give or take the odd pedestrian pass that is part and parcel of being a centre-back, it really does make for two minutes of pure defensive heroism, so be sure to check it out down below:

Those two blocks are out of this world, aren't they? What an absolute warrior.

Fans go wild for Dias' highlights

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Best CB in the Premier League (opinion)

For my money, Dias' stunning performance against PSG only goes to cement the fact that he's the Premier League's best centre-back right now.

Of course, it's worth me clarifying that Virgil van Dijk is therefore not up for consideration because of his long-term injury and yes, I would pick the Liverpool colossus over Dias when he's in top form.

However, Van Dijk aside, I can't see anyone who comes close to the Herculean figure behind a City side on the verge of winning a treble and scooping the Premier League Golden Glove to boot.

According to official Premier League data, Dias hasn't made a single error leading to goal this season and has barely conceded more goals (16) than he's amassed clean sheets (14), which is staggering.

Yes, John Stones deserves a great deal of credit, too, but some of Dias' displays this season have been so astonishing that he's rightfully tipped as a contender for the PFA Player of the Year.

Will he pip Kevin De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes or Harry Kane to the punch? Perhaps not, but as far as centre-backs are concerned, nobody has filled the shoes of Van Dijk quite like Dias in 2020/21.

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