Kylian Mbappe genius and Carlo Ancelotti error gave United target Mauricio Pochettino free pass

Paris Saint-Germain beat Real Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday night in the first leg of their Champions League tie and Mauricio Pochettino has been getting plenty of plaudits from Manchester United supporters for masterminding the last-16 win.

United fans will be scrutinising every performance by Pochettino and Erik ten Hag until the end of the season, but the Argentine's victory may not be as impressive as it appears on paper

This season the Champions League has scrapped the away goals rule, which would have given Madrid an incentive to try and secure a positive result in Paris, but instead Carlo Ancelotti set up for his side not to lose.

Karim Benzema, one of the most in-form strikers in Europe, occupied more midfield areas against PSG in a game where the emphasis was on the French side to try and secure a result.

You can see this is the case by the passing numbers that PSG had in their midfield. Marco Veratti completed 94 passes against Madrid while Leandro Paredes found the target with 106.

PSG also had the lion's share of the game's possession with 57% and Madrid did not muster a single shot on target for the entirety of the game.

The Ligue 1 side laboured for a way through and it seemed that Ancelotti's plan was going to pay off when Thibaut Courtois saved Lionel Messi's penalty in the 62nd minute.

However, there is always an issue with trying not to lose a game instead of winning it, especially when you're playing against one of the most talented front lines in European football. Someone can come up with a piece of pure brilliance at any moment.

Kylian Mbappe is the most complete forward in world football right now and probably has been for at least a season. When his team needed him most he provided the spark that PSG