Manchester United's "Theatre of Dreams" has never seemed such an appropriate venue for a visiting team. Even in his wildest dreams, Thomas Tuchel couldn't have imagined his PSG side leaving Old Trafford with a 2-0 win Tuesday without both Neymar and Edinson Cavani.

But they did. PSG's injury-hit team went to Manchester, saw what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men had for them, and conquered. Tuchel had a game plan. His players executed it perfectly.

Ahead of the match, at the Radisson Blue hotel in Manchester, Tuchel was chilled, as though he had everything under control despite the enormity of the task ahead. The German had spent hours watching every United game under Solskjaer -- 10 wins from 11 -- in the preceding days. In the team meeting before PSG left the hotel, he told his players that, in order to win, they had to be a team, to behave like one and play like one.

Tuchel spoke a lot to Marquinhos and Dani Alves about how to nullify Paul Pogba's influence, and it worked. Marquinhos did a great job man-marking Pogba throughout, and PSG's second goal came as a result of he and Alves doubling up on the France midfielder to win the ball back.

After the game, Marquinhos and Tuchel shared a hug in the dressing room and the Brazilian thanked his manager for believing in him. It was not a given that the young defender could transform himself into a holding midfielder, but he learned quickly and got everything right against United.

Tuchel also asked Marco Verratti to give him the best 60 minutes of his life. The Italy midfielder had been struggling with injury but, with Neymar and Cavani out, PSG needed him. He gave a 75-minute masterclass, bossing the midfield and taking control of the game.

For Angel Di Maria, things were different than for the rest of the squad. He was coming back to Old Trafford for the first time since his one bad season as Manchester United player in 2014-15 and felt he had a point to prove. Against a backdrop of boos, he proved it with a performance as energetic as his "swearing" celebration after the first goal. Tuchel knew that Di Maria would cause problems for full-back Ashley Young and asked the Argentine to stay wide as much as possible to stretch the United team. That, plus his obvious desire to prove the crowd wrong, saw the winger put in a match-winning performance.

But what was striking to people around the team was how composed Tuchel and his players were. Despite their injury crisis and United's superb form, they never lost belief.

Goal scorer Kylian Mbappe, another star on the night, said something interesting afterwards. "People have to stop selling fear," he told RMC Sport. He was right. The players never doubted themselves -- but the media and the public did, creating a perception that United had become invincible and would overrun a weakened PSG.