Kylian Mbappe on Tuesday struck in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to give Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) a 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their heavyweight UEFA Champions League last-16 tie.
It looked as though Real would escape with a draw when Lionel Messi had a penalty saved by Thibaut Courtois just after the hour mark at the Parc des Princes.
In the last minute of stoppage-time, Mbappe cut into the box from the left and between two defenders before finishing past Courtois for his 22nd goal this season.
Photo: AFP
Tipped to move to Madrid when his contract in Paris expires at the end of the season, Mbappe’s last-gasp strike means his current club have the edge heading into the return at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 9.
The France World Cup-winning striker might have focused much of the attention coming into this tie amid the speculation about his future, but the array of attacking talent elsewhere could not be overlooked.
Messi was coming up against Madrid for the first time since leaving Barcelona, for whom he scored a record 26 goals in El Clasico over his years at Camp Nou.
Real also knew all about the threat of Angel di Maria, who won the Champions League with the Spanish giants in 2014.
He started because Neymar was only deemed fit enough for a place on the bench, having not played since the end of November due to an ankle injury.
The fragile Brazilian might have wondered how to fit back into Mauricio Pochettino’s team, as he watched the way they played without him in the first half.
PSG showed a hunger that has been lacking for most of the campaign in Ligue 1, even as they built a huge lead at the top of the table.
PSG’s pressing game suffocated their opponents, although Real were seemingly quite happy to defend deep and give up possession, aware that a 0-0 draw would do just fine with the away goals rule scrapped from this season.
That meant that Karim Benzema, Real’s top scorer making his return after a three-game spell out injured, saw practically none of the ball along with the two players flanking him, Vinicius Jr and Marco Asensio.
For most of the first half, PSG played perhaps their best soccer since the arrival of Messi in August last year, although Courtois only really had to make one save of note in that time, to deny Mbappe in the 18th minute.
The visitors would have tried to regroup at halftime, but less than five minutes after the restart, Mbappe forced Courtois into an excellent save low to his right.
Courtois then topped that by diving to his left to keep out Messi’s 62nd-minute penalty, awarded after Mbappe was chopped down by Dani Carvajal, who he had tormented all evening.
Also on Tuesday, it was:
‧ Sporting 0, Man City 5
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
RSS