Ruben Dias stunned his own teammates in his heroic efforts to protect the Manchester City goal against PSG.
The no-frills defender played his part in a terrific collective display by hurling himself at the ball whenever it neared Ederson's goal, including at least two blocks that caught him flush in the face. Shortly after one of those decisive moments in the City box, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden raced the length of the pitch with the latter squaring for Riyad Mahrez to score his second of the night and seal the tie.
If the embrace between John Stones, Aleks Zinchenko and Dias after the Ukrainian's second-half block to deny Neymar summed up the spirit of the defence, the sheer surprise at the Dias headed interception stayed with Kyle Walker as he recalled the game in media interviews afterwards.
“In the first 15 minutes of both games it was tough, but we weathered the storm," he said. "They made some good paths and Ruben took one straight in the head which I couldn’t believe!
"That is what he does. He loves it, he loves defending and I think all of us love defending. A clean sheet was very important. We said before the start of the game that we needed the clean sheet and that we needed to help the centre forwards out.
"They score a lot of goals for us but we needed to dig deep and make sure we get the clean sheet for them to take the pressure off them. Luckily they scored two goals as they normally do, we went and got them on the break and got the important goal that we needed to probably secure it.
"It wasn’t easy, I can assure you, especially with the array of talent they have got. But I thought it was a good, professional, solid performance as a team.”
