Paris Saint-Germain continues to lead the way in Ligue 1 after a 3-0 win away at FC Nantes ensured that Olympique de Marseille’s time at the summit was brief. Kylian Mbappe scored twice and Nuno Mendes added a third at Stade de la Beaujoire on Saturday with Antoine Kombouare’s hosts down to 10 men for over two thirds of the game.
The sole negative for Christophe Galtier was a first-half injury to Vitinha which the French tactician will hope is not too serious given the Portuguese midfielder’s growing importance to the starting XI. PSG switched things up with Neymar and Sergio Ramos taking a breather and starting from the bench in Nantes, but it did not slow Mbappe down and the French superstar was clinical inside of 18 minutes.
Messi teed his strike partner up and Mbappe gave Alban Lafont no chance with a finish reminiscent of the 23-year-old’s hat-trick strike in Barcelona back in early 2021. It took until nine minutes into the second half for the combination to work again with Messi patient in providing a simple finish for the No. 7.
That is where Mbappe’s involvement ended with Neymar coming on his place and Marco Verratti also withdrawn as Ramos was sent on. The Brazilian needed just a few minutes to get involved and hit the post before Mendes followed up to score as PSG eased to victory and gave valuable minutes to the likes of Hugo Ekitike too.
It was an ideal warm up ahead of Juventus in the opening Group H fixture of this season’s UEFA Champions League (on Paramount+) and Galtier will be encouraged by this result and the midweek win over Toulouse. Messi got two more assists there while Mbappe, Neymar and Juan Bernat scored as some key…
Source : cbssports
