Mbappe misses penalty, comes off injured in PSG win
Paris Saint-Germain prolonged their lead on the prime of Ligue 1 with a 3-1 win at Montpellier on Wednesday however their night was overshadowed by an damage to Kylian Mbappe, who had earlier missed a penalty.
The France famous person had an eighth-minute spot-kick saved by Montpellier’s Benjamin Lecomte after which remarkably noticed his second try turned onto the submit by the goalkeeper after the referee ordered a retake.
Mbappe then limped off with what seemed like a hamstring damage halfway by the primary half, elevating the alarm for PSG with the primary leg of their Champions League last-16 tie in opposition to Bayern Munich now lower than two weeks away.
Talking after the game, coach Christophe Galtier prompt the damage was right down to a knock quite than a muscle drawback.
“He took a knock to the again of the knee or the again of the thigh, so we’ll see,” mentioned Galtier.
“I am not too apprehensive,” he added. “It is a bruise or a contusion, we do not know but.
“With the run of matches we do not need to take dangers with a really busy fixture checklist, however it does not seem that severe.”
PSG host Bayern in Paris on February 14, with the second leg in Germany on March 8. They’re determined to keep away from a repeat of final season after they had been knocked out on the similar stage of the Champions League by Actual Madrid.
After profitable simply one among their final 4 league games, Wednesday’s awkward journey for PSG noticed them additionally lose Sergio Ramos to damage and have two objectives disallowed earlier than Fabian Ruiz put them forward 10 minutes into the second half.
– Messi on the right track –
Ruiz then arrange Lionel Messi to make it 2-0 with a deft end within the 72nd minute, the Argentine scoring his 14th membership purpose of the season.
Sixteen-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery made certain of the win in stoppage time after Arnaud Nordin — a good friend of Mbappe’s from their time collectively at France’s nationwide coaching academy — had pulled one again.
PSG, who had been with out the rested Neymar, prolonged their lead on the prime of the desk from three to 5 factors after Lens misplaced 1-0 at residence to Good.
“It was a very good efficiency usually,” Galtier mentioned.
“There was an unbelievable state of affairs within the first half with the retaken penalty, we hit the submit, had objectives disallowed and two accidents as a result of Sergio Ramos was concerned in a collision and on falling he harm his adductor, however apparently it’s nothing severe.”
The win for PSG got here after a irritating finish to the January switch window on Tuesday as they didn’t course of the paperwork to finish the mortgage signing of Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea after the Moroccan winger had handed a medical.
Gaetan Laborde scored the one purpose of the game for Good as Lens dropped factors at residence for the primary time this season after profitable all 10 earlier matches there.
Marseille climbed above Lens into second place because of a 2-0 victory at Nantes earlier, secured by an personal purpose from Joao Victor after which a late strike by Azzedine Ounahi, the Moroccan World Cup star making his debut after signing within the January window.
Monaco in fourth beat Auxerre 3-2, whereas fifth-placed Rennes eased to a 3-0 win in opposition to struggling Strasbourg.
On-loan Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun adopted up his last-gasp equaliser in opposition to PSG on the weekend by netting a hat-trick as Reims got here from two objectives right down to beat Lorient 4-2 and lengthen their unbeaten run to fifteen games.
Backside aspect Angers suffered a brand new French top-flight report thirteenth consecutive defeat as they conceded in stoppage time to lose 2-1 at residence to Ajaccio.
That consequence leaves them 11 factors from security.
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