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With Group A of the Champions League group stage having opened with a goalless stalemate between Galatasaray and Club Brugge in Belgium, all eyes rightly turned to the highly anticipated fixture between PSG and Real Madrid in France.
Both sides came into the clash with narrow home victories over the weekend, with the French champions needing a stunning last-gasp strike by Neymar to dispatch Strasbourg in Ligue 1, while Real Madrid almost let a three-goal lead slip but ultimately held on for a 3-2 win over Levante in LaLiga.
The game was expected to be an evenly matched contest between two of Europe's heavyweights, but in unexpected scenes, Real Madrid were absolutely blown away and fell to a 3-0 defeat in the French capital.
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The loss sees Los Blancos occupy the bottom spot on the standings in Group A, and here we shall be highlighting four talking points from the fixture.
#4 Yet more misery for Thibaut Courtois in goal
Thibaut Courtois caused a lot of bad blood between him and Chelsea fans when he acrimoniously forced through a transfer to Real Madrid for the sum of £35m last summer.
The Belgian was fresh off winning the Golden Glove at the World Cup and arrived with a reputation of being one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
However, his reputation has taken a massive hit since arriving the Santiago Bernabeu, as a number of substandard performances and errors have seen his abilities questioned.
Having rotated for the starting spot with Keylor Navas last season, the Costa Rican's departure to PSG paved the way for Courtois to become undoubted first choice, but the show of faith in discarding a man who played a major role in the success enjoyed by Zidane during his first managerial tenure has not had an impact on Courtois' performance between the sticks.
Over the weekend, the 27-year-old conceded two goals from just three shots on target he faced against Levante, meaning that he has conceded a goal in his last 12 LaLiga games consecutively, which marks the worst run without a clean sheet in his goalkeeping career.
Three goals were conceded against PSG, bringing the total he has shipped in this season to nine from just five matches.
The Belgian international was hardly helped by the displays of the defenders in front of him, as Eder Militao, in particular, struggled to keep up pace with the hosts' attack, and was caught out of position on a number of occasions.
Thibaut Courtois came to Real Madrid seeking to take a step forward in his career, but a year on, it is unarguable that he has taken several steps backwards.
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#3 PSG send a statement of intent to rivals over Champions League seriousness
Since their takeover by Qatar Sports Investment in 2010, PSG have seen their fortunes transformed massively, and they are regularly named among the top teams in Europe.
With an oil-rich sovereign state's wealth almost entirely at their disposal, it comes as no surprise that PSG have bought some of the best players in the world over the last few years, and currently have the two most expensive players of all time on their books.
However, while domestic supremacy has been achieved without breaking a sweat, it is on the continent where the club's true aspirations lie, but rather painfully, they have always come up short when paired with the big boys and have failed to make the semifinal of the Champions League despite over a billion pounds being spent on player recruitment.
Two of the aforementioned most expensive players in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were missing from the clash against Real Madrid, with the former facing a suspension while the latter has fitness issues, and neither could Thomas Tuchel call on the services of Edinson Cavani who was also ruled out by injury.
The three are the main attacking threat of PSG, and one would have been forgiven for writing off the home side's chances of getting anything from the match.
However, the Parisians totally upset the odds by absolutely outclassing Real Madrid over the course of the 90 minutes.
They caged their visitors' much-vaunted attack, ensuring that celebrated forwards like Hazard, Benzema and Gareth Bale failed to get a shot on target, while their midfield was also exquisite in the performance of their duties.
Upfront, Mauro Icardi combined well with Pablo Sarabia showing that he can be counted upon in the continued absence of Cavani, and it was an all-round wonderful display from Thomas Tuchel's men.
In total, they had nine shots, with five of those being on target while they also had more possession (53%) and attempted more passes (619 to 554) than their visitors, posting an 89% pass accuracy.
For all of their struggles, Real Madrid are still an elite club and as recently as last year were three-peat Champions League winners and the fact that PSG were able to effortlessly dispatch them even without the presence of their key players would have sent alarm bells ringing to the rest of Europe.
#2 Subdued full debut for Eden Hazard
After completing his long-awaited transfer to Real Madrid for a club-record fee, fans of Los Blancos had to wait for almost a month to see their marquee player in competitive action, as a thigh injury sidelined Eden Hazard for the opening weeks of the season.
He finally returned to fitness and started on the bench against Levante, with his full debut coming in the game with PSG.
The clash against one of Europe's bigger teams gave Hazard an opportunity to announce his arrival for Real Madrid, but that did not happen, as the Belgian international was largely an anonymous figure with PSG dictating proceedings from start to finish.
Hazard's numbers against the French champions were pretty disappointing; he had just one shot in the game, dragging his effort wide and failing to test Keylor Navas.
Furthermore, he made only one key pass in the game and completed a paltry 80.6% of his attempted 36 passes.
The former Chelsea man was substituted for Lucas Vazquez in the 70th minute and the look on his face as he trudged off the field said everything you need to know about his performance. Hazard could and should have done better and he would be the first to admit that.
#1 Angel di Maria: the star of the show
On a night when some of his former colleagues on the other end flattered to deceive, Angel di Maria brought his A-game to the Parc des Princes and was virtually unplayable in what was a 5-star display against the Spanish giants.
It took just 14 minutes for the Argentine international to open the scoring, and he made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute finishing a pass from Idrissa Gueye past a hapless Thibaut Courtois.
His second goal saw him achieve the distinction of being just the third player to score a Champions League brace against both Real Madrid and Barcelona, as he had earlier starred with two-goals in that infamous 4-0 defeat of the Blaugrana by PSG in 2017.
It could have been more but for some not-so-composed finishing by Di Maria, and while Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani might have been absent from the field, the 31-year-old downed his former club to show that there is life at PSG beyond the terrific trio.
