French Paris Saint-Germain stumbled into a 2-2 draw with German Leipzig in the dying moments, losing the top spot in Group A to their main rival Manchester City, who defeated Club Brugge 4-1 on Wednesday in the fourth round of the UEFA Champions League. City ascended to first place with 9 points, one point ahead of PSG, while Brugge holds third place with 4 points and Leipzig has one point.
PSG played against Leipzig without their star Argentine Lionel Messi, who is sidelined due to a knee injury. The home team surprised the Parisian visitors by opening the scoring with a header from former PSG striker Christopher Nkunku just 8 minutes into the match, raising his tally to 5 goals in the continental competition this season.
PSG barely recovered from the shock when the referee awarded a penalty to Leipzig after Portuguese Danilo fouled his compatriot Andre Silva inside the area, but the towering Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma brilliantly saved Silva's attempt (12'). PSG gradually caught their breath and entered the game, quickly equalizing when Brazilian Neymar played a pass through the lines to Kylian Mbappe on the left flank, who then crossed into the area for Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum to tap in from close range (21').
Wijnaldum also gave PSG the lead, taking advantage of a header from team captain Marquinhos, which Wijnaldum also directed past Leipzig's Hungarian goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi (39'). The second half saw significant back-and-forth action as PSG tried to secure a definitive victory while Leipzig sought to regain momentum, but the advantage remained with the visitors, who saw Mbappe miss two one-on-one opportunities that Gulacsi saved on both occasions (50' and 63').
Leipzig nearly equalized when Nkunku delivered an excellent pass inside the area, which Hungarian substitute Dominik Szoboszlai followed up on, but he shot wide from a good position (72'). However, Szoboszlai succeeded in his second attempt when the referee awarded a penalty to his team due to a foul by Presnel Kimpembe inside the area, which the Hungarian converted successfully in the second minute of stoppage time.
