Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain didn't have much to cheer about during their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday night.Mauricio Pochettino's men looked disjointed and incoherent as they failed to inflict damage upon their opponents at the Etihad Stadium, ultimately winding up with the result that they deserved.The French side were incredibly lucky to emerge from the first-half with a clean sheet to their name with Achraf Hakimi and the post being called upon to deny Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan.
Man City 2-1 PSG
However, they were able to find the opening goal of the game after the break with Messi's ball into the box eventually finding Kylian Mbappe, who finished neatly past the onrushing Ederson.
But it was merely a distraction from City's continued dominance of the game with Raheem Sterling levelling the scores just 13 minutes later, before Gabriel Jesus lashed home a later winner.
All in all, PSG couldn't have too many complaints about the result with the star-studded front three of Messi, Mbappe and Neymar failing to click for the majority of the Champions League tie.
That being said, Messi being Messi, even an average performance from the Barcelona legend still had its moments and the 34-year-old was able to keep his nutmeg streak against City going.
Messi's cheeky nutmeg on Sterling
Messi has earned something of a reputation for slipping the ball between the legs of City players having inflicted one of football's most iconic nutmegs upon James Milner in the 2014/15 season.
And although Messi couldn't quite produce another nutmeg that had Pep Guardiola watching on in shock, he still managed to make Sterling look like a traffic cone with a quick piece of skill early on.
With less than six minutes on the clock, the six-time Ballon d'Or winner breezed past Sterling with the type of effortless nutmeg that City players have come so used to. Be sure to check it out here:
It was at this point that Sterling knew he'd been mugged off.
Messi's brilliant nutmegs vs Man City
There is just something so nonchalant about the way Messi was able to glide past his opponent and you can bet that Sterling will have some added sympathy for Milner after experiencing it.
And just in case seeing Messi embarrassing Sterling isn't enough to get your fix off the Argentine battering the Citizens with nutmegs, then you're in luck because we have the compilation for you.
Twitter user @TotalMaestro has hoovered up hundreds of retweets and 'likes' for a superb video of Messi humiliating Milner, Fernandinho, David Silva and many more, so give it a watch right here:
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Marry that to the fact that Messi also whipped out yet another nutmeg against Joao Cancelo this week and it would be fair to say that the PSG star has something of a thing for taking on City.
Sadly for Messi, though, it's balls between the posts and not legs that win games and from that perspective, PSG were simply not up to scratch.
