If you put 11 men on a football pitch long enough, one day they will eventually come together and work as a team, and that's what happened last night for Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in their UEFA Champions League semifinal clash with the Bundesliga's Red Bull (RB) Leipzig.

It was always going to be a rough night for the Germans once the full team sheet revealed a PSG firing on all cylinders. Kylian Mbappe and Angel di Maria were back to full health and ready to play from the opening whistle.

It was just 13 minutes before the latter made an impact. A free kick courted by Neymar Jr. was curved in by di Maria perfectly onto the forehead of Marquinhos. Leipzig keeper Peter Gulacsi had no chance, and it was clear from the follow up that the rest of the team didn't have much of a chance either.

Their tactics under wunderkind manager Julian Nagelsmann promote fast, free and aggressive play – which is fine until you face a rival who play fast, free and aggressive football but whose players are all a step ahead of your own, partially because their manager Thomas Tuchel was the guy who taught Nagelsmann everything he knows.

A little too much has been made about the absence of star striker Timo Werner from the Leipzig lineup, but it's hard not to look at their difficulties in front of goal in comparison to the threat from PSG's front three of Neymar, Mbappe and di Maria and wonder how much of an improvement it would make if they had a committed striker up front.

To their credit, whenever Leipzig found a break, they made the most of it and marched up field, through the gap created by the overly-eager midfielder Marquinhos and the two central defenders Presnel Kimpembe and Thiago Silva. Unfortunately, by the time any of the front four of the 4-1-4-1 formation got the ball at their feet, PSG had already tracked back to defend.

When the French got the ball, they did the same, only they made their own space instead of being reliant on Leipzig to give it to them. Leandro Paredes and particularly Ander Herrera dominated the wings and inked up with the superstar three in front of goal.

This PSG was unlike any PSG seen in the Champions League before. This wasn't a group of egos playing for their own personal highlights, this was a genuine team. Their second goal in the 42nd minute proved it: Gulacsi kicked the ball back into play and completely missed his intended target, so the ball was snapped up by Neymar. Previously, (as recent as one game ago, perhaps) he would have taken that chance himself, even with Dayot Upamecamo in his path.

Here, he crossed it to di Maria who was open enough that he had time to control the ball before kicking it under the keeper to make it 2-0 at half time.

Leipzig went for it in the second half. They traded out their left wing of Dani Olmo and Christopher Nkunku for the fresh legs of Patrik Schick and Emil Forsberg and moved into a 3-2-4-1 formation. It worked until it didn't.

Nori Mukiele slipped under pressure while trying to run the ball out from the back and gave the ball to di Maria who got it across the goalmouth to Juan Bernat who knocked it in for 3-0. Another mistake, another goal. Moving the ball quickly and decisively was PSG's main problem against Atalanta and, here, they proved that was all down the absence of di Maria.

If this newfound teamwork was a surprise, PSG's playacting wasn't. Cynical fouls have long been part of the game and the teams at the top have long known how to exploit this – in fact, that's what Spanish football is known for. Players such as Sergio Ramos and Diego Costa play smooth as silk until the referee's back is turned and suddenly they turn nasty.

Neymar was never innocent but he was blooded into European football via La Liga's FC Barcelona and he definitely knows how to lower the tone. Throughout this game, even when PSG had a comfortable lead, he and several of his teammates could be seen playing for fouls. Slow motion replays showed that most were brought on by legs intentionally left in, backing up into opponents and falling over when there was nowhere left to go and – as seen in the 79th minute – absolutely nothing. Whatever happened between Neymar and Yussuf Poulsen was seen by the referee and literally nobody else.

The game ended 3-0 and Tuchel can be proud of his team; not just for reaching their first ever Champions League final, but for finally being able to be referred to as an actual team.