Paul Fennessy

LAST SEASON, Barcelona-PSG was considered most neutrals’ dream final.

Both teams boast many of the world’s best footballers.

Starlets like Lamine Yamal and Pedri would have come up against fellow prodigies such as Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola.

Unfortunately for some, Inter beat Barca 7-6 in a remarkable semi-final, and the showdown between the Italians and PSG at the Allianz Arena turned out to be a 5-0 non-contest.

Tonight, the game that so many people had been hoping for finally arrived.

But perhaps inevitably, it turned out to be a poor spectacle.

Towards the end of the game, on TNT Sports, pundit Steve McManaman was hailing Luis Enrique for showing “no fear”.

The PSG boss had introduced 18-year-old winger Quentin Ndjantou for his Champions League debut.

But really, this decision was telling for a different reason.

The Ligue 1 club also started with a 17-year-old (Ibrahim Mbaye) and a 19-year-old (Senny Mayulu) in attack.

In total, they retained just five players from the starting XI from last season’s Champions League final.

Barcelona, meanwhile, had a stronger lineup, but were missing two key players in attack — Raphinha, who was injured, and Robert Lewandowski, who began on the bench.

Key players like Pedri, Dani Olmo and Eric García were withdrawn before full-time.

Ultimately, as it did against Inter last year, Barcelona’s high-line cost them — backup striker Gonçalo Ramos converted Achraf Hakimi’s low cross to hand PSG a 2-1 victory with a stoppage-time goal.

But it is hard to read too much into this low-intensity affair.

The result felt almost irrelevant.

Both these sides will progress to the Champions League knockout stages.

Despite the late drama, you got the sense the pair would have been happy enough with a draw, given that they are arguably the most formidable opponent each will come up against in the league phase.

Last season, apart from Dinamo Zagreb, between 11 and 15 points were enough for teams to progress to the knockout stages.

So 12 points or four wins out of eight will probably leave clubs safe this year.

Both these footballing giants — two of the favourites to win the competition outright — had already prevailed in their opening games and will have six more opportunities to pick up points.

It’s consequently no wonder that the ensuing 90 minutes were so forgettable, despite the array of talent on the field.

There have been EFL Cup matches this season that felt like they had more at stake.

One of the main reasons behind the new Champions League format was that it would increase the number of opportunities for top sides to face each other.

But what it has also done is guarantee more meaningless fixtures that have the feel of glorified friendlies.

PSG played 65 games last season — more than any other in their history. Barcelona played 60. Particularly as both sides play in relatively uncompetitive domestic leagues, they know they don’t really need to peak until around March, when they finally start to face some serious tests in Europe.

The French outfit triumphed last season in the Champions League despite failing to win four of their opening five matches in the competition, losing three times in this period. Barca also lost their opener to Monaco, but it didn’t matter.

You could argue it was in their interest to play understrength teams tonight. Why give their rival an insight into how they set up tactically at their best when they may meet again in more pressurised circumstances?

There is, therefore, a sense of pointlessness about the early stages of Europe’s premier club competition.

Big teams can regularly rest players and sleepwalk through the opening few games, and still qualify relatively comfortably, even if PSG had the inconvenience of needing to earn a 10-0 aggregate win over Brest last year in the punishment round.

The old Champions League format was imperfect, of course.

However, with only six group games, there was a smaller margin for error, which would occasionally create a sense of excitement and jeopardy for the big sides.

Instead, the Champions League in its early stages now feels like what the Club World Cup has come to represent — a competition where even the best players, understandably, are too often absent or on autopilot.

Last season, any casual football fan would have made a decent stab at predicting the 24 out of 36 teams to reach the knockout phase, and this year will be no different.

There have never been more matches to watch featuring the best football players and teams, and this unique circumstance has largely had the effect of diminishing fans’ enjoyment derived from the sport.