PSG vs Liverpool: Neymar will never be perfect but his signature performance can silence critics

The case against Neymar is tiresomely well-known by now, but what about the case for him? He made that argument himself tonight at the Parc des Princes, with a display of quick-footed imagination and execution, skipping his way through Liverpool as PSG clambered past them in the Champions League. He was the best player in this great match, reminding the world with his flashing boots why he is the most expensive player of all time, and why he sometimes acts as if the normal rules of behaviour do not apply to him.

Before tonight, PSG and Neymar were challenged with precisely the same set of questions. When will they finally do it against a big team? Can they find the intensity required? Can they raise their level to a higher standard than strolling past cowed opposition in Ligue 1. And, in those smaller questions, one bigger one: was it all worth it? Neymar himself cost the club's Qatari owners €222m just to get him out of Barcelona. And if he found himself in February taking on Astana in the Europa League, it would feel to everyone involved like the most shaming waste.

But tonight Neymar and PSG can relax in the knowledge that those questions have been answered, for a while. This 2-1 win was their first against another top team since they beat Bayern Munich here 14 months ago. It means that if they win in Belgrade in two weeks’ time they will progress from this, the hardest of the eight groups.

Neymar has a signature performance of his own to be proud of. Because this was what everyone connected to PSG had been waiting for since the summer of 2017: an influential, decisive, entertaining performance against top opposition in a crucial Champions League game. Yes, it is only November, and there is plenty more for him to do. But at least playing like this is a start.

Just take his goal, that gave PSG that 2-0 lead with eight minutes left in the first half. Yes the finish was perfect but that was only the climax of it. The move started with Neymar himself, finding himself room at left-back and immediately sensing that a counter-attack was on. He broke forward at speed, and was let through by Joe Gomez, having got the right-back cleverly booked minutes before. Then a one-two with Mbappe, then releasing Mbappe again at precisely the right moment. The finish, after Mbappe crossed to Cavani, was the least of it.

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PSG were forced back in the second half but Neymar was still their most dangerous player, always wanting the ball, able to keep it in tighter spaces and up against more opponents than anyone else on the pitch. He nearly set up their third when Marquinhos’ header from his corner was saved, and Allison had to scramble to keep out his long-range free-kick.

But the game was won in the first half and Neymar was the most important player then, as PSG tore into Liverpool with an intensity people doubted they were capable of. Even out on the left in Thomas Tuchel’s 4-4-2 he pressed as hard as he could, drove forward at every opportunity, getting kicked, buying fouls. He looked like a man desperate to prove that he was not just a man for Angers and Reims, but that for €222m you get a player who can cause nightmares for the best defences in Europe too.

This felt like a more mature Neymar, one who had reminded himself that he is playing an 11-a-side game, and that his teammates want the same things that he does. This has not always been obvious in the past, as he selfishly tried to win games all by himself for PSG or for Brazil in the World Cup.

But then Neymar has nothing to show for those attempts to redefine the sport into a test of individual performance art. L’Equipe ran a story this morning about how bad his record has been in big games at PSG so far, how he had disappointed when the expectations were highest, against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid last season, against Liverpool and Napoli this time. The damning suggestion was that he was “strong against the weak and weak against the strong”.

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It was a similar story at the World Cup when Neymar scored against Costa Rica and Mexico but was powerless to save Brazil in their quarter-final defeat to Belgium, and went home best remembered for trying to get Miguel Layun sent off in the last-16. Naturally moments like that colour perceptions, especially when Neymar makes no alternative case for himself.

Of course, those who choose not to like Neymar can always find reasons to justify that. He is not someone who is embarrassed by his flaws, or who tries to hide them. He has been hammered since the World Cup for his play-acting, that indulgent childishness that has harmed his global reputation even more than leaving Barcelona for PSG in the first place. And has it got through to him? Maybe not.

Because Neymar spent plenty of this evening rolling around on the ground, reacting to early introductions from Sadio Mane and James Milner as if he were desperately trying to drag the eyes of the world back onto himself even as the game sped away from him. Clearly, he needs to be the centre of attention at all times, never turning down an opportunity for the validation of the crowd. At one point early on he thumped the ball into Joe Gomez, who was on the ground, to win a throw-in. He celebrated by dancing in the technical area, trying to rouse the fans as if he had just hit the bar from distance. His celebration of his goal felt like it lasted for days, ending with him running over to the bench to jump into Dani Alves. If you come looking for a reason to disapprove, he always offers one up.

But no-one is perfect and given what Neymar has given the world, in his performances on football pitches all over the world this decade, it feels churlish in the extreme to focus on the bad rather than the good. Football needs him and if he can drag PSG into the serious end of the Champions League this spring, the competition will be richer for it.