Context is important. In the build up, Manchester United vs. Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was considered a big game. The zillionaire champions of France vs. the resurgent English bronze medalists. The realpolitik on the night was very different: an empty stadium under a downpour on a chilly Parisian October night set the tone from the very beginning.

Limp and lifeless, for the duration – but especially the early goings – this blockbuster fixture could have been passed off as a pre-season friendly. PSG manager Thomas Tuchel had an excuse as most of his star players were out with injuries. What can't be excused was how he seemingly did nothing to mitigate that on the field.

PSG's formation is akin to an accordion. Playing in a 4-3-3 formation, that back four tend to stay rigid in front of their goalkeeper, becoming a back seven when necessary. Those three midfielders who dropped back then usually spring forward and push up the pitch to slightly beyond the halfway line where the front three of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel di Maria wait deep. They like to play with space; di Maria to fire in crosses, Neymar and Mbappe to use their incredible pace.

This works when you have a full squad firing on both flanks. Without midfielders Marco Veratti and Leandro Paredes out due to injury and Marquinhos, technically a center-back but a genuine box-to-box maverick, unavailable also, PSG had practically no service going forwards.

To make matters worse, Manchester United looked like they had forgone the concept of formations altogether. Their 3-4-1-2 does leave plenty of space around Bruno Fernandes – the "1" – but their focus on overloading man-to-man defense created scenarios where Fernandes, Scott McTominay, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof and Axel Tuanzebe would smother Neymar and, in the process, leave roughly a third of the pitch for PSG to play in.

This bizarre combination, played out a low-effort slow motion, eliminated almost all attacking link-up play so it's not a surprise that the first two goals came from dead ball scenarios and individual errors. In the 20th minute, Anthony Martial was fouled in the box by Abdou Diallo giving United a penalty. Fernandes took it with a hop, skip and a kick into the bottom right corner – only to have it saved by goalkeeper Keylor Navas. Navas, however, was off his line so it was taken again. Fernandes took it with a hop, skip and a kick into the bottom right corner and made it 1-0.

Ten minutes into the second half, PSG got a corner and Neymar fired it into the United box. Martial, the closest to Neymar and completely unhurried by opponents, leapt up, closed his eyes and headed it into his own goal while badly trying to defend.

At 1-1 and with half an hour left, the game began to look like a real match. Idrissa Gueye and Ander Herrera getting swapped out for Moise Kean and Rafinha lit a spark in PSG and they started to pose a genuine threat going forward; Manchester United's substitution of Alex Telles for Paul Pogba ended up being a game changer.

As play opened up in the final stretch, Marcus Rashford found himself with acres of space around the PSG box and had several attempts on goal. The one trend that remained is that these were either individual efforts or clumsy attempts at link-up play. In both cases he was repeatedly snuffed out by Diallo and Presnel Kimpembe.

As the clock ticked down and this agonizing display looked to be headed to a 1-1 draw, Pogba, who had been active from the moment he came on, played a short cross to Rashford who turned, ran into the gap between Danilo Pereira and Pablo Sarabia and smashed it diagonally into the bottom left corner.

With only three minutes to go, Rashford won the game for United in Paris, just as he did one year ago with the extra time penalty that knocked PSG out of the 2018/19 tournament. Not an exciting or entertaining victory, but an important one for United nonetheless. With current Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig in the same group, Rashford's goal could be crucial in getting his side through to the knockouts.