It was a disaster of epic proportions for Paris Saint-Germain, but it was also nothing new.
As Manchester United well know from their own historic Champions League night against the Parisians, they are serial bottlers. That night when United fought back from a huge deficit and knocked them out in remarkable circumstances through Marcus Rashford's last gasp penalty wasn't the first time they have blown it in Europe's top competition and it certainly wasn't the last.
The latest edition in the ceaselessly entertaining list of PSG's epic Champions League failures came on Wednesday night, as they somehow managed to go out in even more spectacular fashion they did against United. In a drunken barroom brawl between two washed-up fighters of a knockout tie with Real Madrid, the French side went two goals ahead on aggregate with the incredible Kylian Mbappe scoring in both matches.
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But then in the final half an hour of the 180 minutes of football Los Blancos, and specifically Karim Benzema, launched a stunning comeback. After capitalising on a mistake from the goalkeeper to begin the fightback in earnest, the Frenchman then bagged two stunning strikes in a matter of two breathtaking minutes to put the kings of the Champions League into the quarter-finals.
PSG had it in the palm of their hand. A victory over a team so synonymous with the competition, a club they want to emulate and overtake. It would have been momentous. They threw it all away.
They say you can take the man out of Tottenham but you can't take Tottenham out of the man. This certainly was a very 'Spursy' night for Pochettino and it is by no means a good look when he was brought in to finally win the trophy that has eluded PSG.
Yet, not all the blame should fall on the manager's feet and it certainly shouldn't dissuade United from chasing him to be their next permanent manager. If anything, that outcome might have just become easier.
Incredible choke jobs are almost a part of PSG's identity at this stage. It's happened under so many different managers who've gone on to enjoy success elsewhere - Thomas Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea in the same season he was sacked in Paris. Pochettino got Spurs(!) to a final - that it's clearly a problem with the club rather than the man in charge. The mentality of the squad is so brittle, its culture so broken, that it appears no one can fix it.
It's no surprise. Even though PSG conspired to lose the league last season, the vast majority of years it's an absolute cakewalk for them with no challenge whatsoever. To the point that lifting it is hardly worth celebrating. It's expected. Their front-loaded team of the world's best attackers can't cope perfectly in that environment when the sheer quality is enough to overwhelm most teams.
But when it comes to the big knockout matches against elite clubs, just having the best players isn't enough. This isn't Ultimate Team. You need to have a cohesive unit that defends and attacks as one, with everyone willing to dig in and do their roles. The football that earned Pochettino his reputation was based on intense high-pressing, which is just impossible to implement when you have three forwards who are only interested in attacking.
It cost PSG in Madrid and it will continue to cost them in Europe until they realise it takes more than just star power to make a great team. Their failures shouldn't change United's views on the manager.
United squandered the opportunity to hire Pochettino before and it proved to be costly. Instead, they gave the job to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer permanently largely because of the result he masterminded in Paris. This time, United can't allow another spectacular PSG failure to influence their decision.
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