Neymar and Mbappe disappoint with their finishing after Zidane got it right with his supersub

Paris Saint Germain, while not the first, nor probably the last, are certainly the latest visitors to the Santiago Bernabeu to find out that if you want to win against Real Madrid in the Champions League it is never enough to be merely better than your opponents.

Forget performance or ability for a moment, when it comes to defending the Champions League this is a team that seems to possess an extra gear.

In an extraordinary game between two teams with the best intentions of attack, the French billionaires will have walked off wondering just how just they ended up on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline after a game where at the very least a draw looked theirs for the taking.

PSG must be sick of the sight of Spain.

Last season against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, Unai Emery’s men crashed out when they somehow managed to squander a 4-0 first-leg lead, and while, at least, this defeat is reversible it will nonetheless serve as another painful reminder that when you play against ‘big boys’ you rather hope your own ‘superstars’ will show up.

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For much of the first half the likes of Neymar and Mbappe showed a freshness and a vitality for PSG that was not sustained in a second half in which the French team seemed in control most of the time but their stars did not kill off Los Blancos when they had the chance.

Apart from a busy opening spell from the home side this was a match where for long periods PSG were far and away the better side and took the lead on 33 minutes through Adrien Rabiot only for it to be cancelled out after Lo Celso was adjudged to have pulled at Toni Kroos in the last minute of what had been a pulsating first half.

PSG carried on in the same vein and actually took a stranglehold on the game when Thomas Meunier replaced Edinson Cavani with about 25 minutes remaining.

I have since heard that some pundits were saying that it was decision of Emery to make this change that ultimately cost his side the game which, in my eyes, is nonsense.

In fact the opposite is true and from the moment the substitution was made the French had an extra man in midfield and all Real Madrid could do was defend. It was their moment, one of those situations planned by the coaches that needed the players to finish off.

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In truth when you are 1-1 in Bernabeu with about 10 minutes left to play, with your team in the ascendancy and playing by far the better football you have a right to expect your star men to step up to the plate, to administer the coup de grace.

The English have a phrase for it. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It’s that time that separates the great from the good; that time when the top players turn up. At that moment a goal from either Mbappe or Neymar would have probably brought the curtain down on the tie.

But both players went AWOL. And, in fact, their attacks often seemed composed by men who did not know each other.

With PSG in command and the home crowd baying for changes in personnel, Zinadine Zidane, a man who has been constantly beaten over the head because of his perceived tactical naivity got it spot on – even though they seemed to be too late. First Bale for Benzema, then Lucas Vazquez for Casemiro and most importantly, Marco Asensio for Isco.

It was Asensio who changed the balance of the game and was involved in both the second and third Real Madrid goals with match-winning crosses as the game completely turned on its head.

Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo which ensured that he maintained his record of scoring in every European game this season and one from Marcelo capped a display from two players that do indeed prove the maxim that it is at moments like these that the truly great put in an appearance.

Caution

PSG coach Emery, was swift to criticise Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi whom he felt had favoured Real Madrid, a theory it would be easier to agree with if had he sent off Lo Celso by giving him a second yellow card when adjudging him to have fouled Kroos for the Madrid penalty as well as Neymar for diving in the second half following his first half caution. He did neither.

But you have to say he has a point because the Kroos penalty probably wasn’t and Sergio Ramos defended with his arm in the box but the ref did not want to see it.

Perhaps his irritation would have been better directed towards those who at the most important of times on the most crucial of stages failed to do the business. Or maybe, that is exactly what he tried to do: Divert the attention towards the referee so people ignore the fact his stars did not deliver when it mattered.

And it was probably the young Frenchman Rabiot, the scorer of the PSG goal who hit the nail on the head when he was quick to point out after the game that while it is fine to score a hatful of goals against the likes of Dijon (Neymar scored four as they beat them 8-0 just under a month ago) it is these type of games where you find out what you are made of.

I am sure he was talking about the Brazilian.