Mbappe scores four as PSG win first nine league matches
World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe scored four goals in 14 second-half minutes to lead Paris St Germain to a 5-0 win over Lyon yesterday morning (Singapore time), as they became the first team in Ligue 1 history to win their first nine games.
PSG, who were flattered by the scoreline, took their goal tally to 32 as they moved eight points clear at the top after a bruising match where both teams finished the first half with 10 men.
Lyon, who had to substitute two players before half-time because of injury, more than held their own for the first hour and hit the post with the score at 1-0.
Brazilian Neymar converted a penalty to give PSG a ninth-minute lead, but the game took a dramatic turn when the hosts had Presnel Kimpembe sent off in the 32nd minute for a dangerous studs-up tackle on Tanguy Ndombele.
The referee initially gave a yellow card but changed it to red after a VAR (video assistant referee) review.
The numbers were evened up in first-half stoppage time after Lucas Tousart was given a second yellow card for tripping Mbappe and was sent off for the second game in a row.
Lyon nearly snatched an equaliser in extraordinary circumstances after the interval, when PSG defender Thiago Silva fired a clearance straight at Maxwell Cornet and the ball came off him and struck the foot of the post.
Mbappe, who until then had been anonymous, also hit the post from the next move and shortly afterwards the floodgates opened.
The 19-year-old extended PSG's lead in the 61st minute with a shot which went in off both posts and then tapped in a short pass from Marquinhos after Lyon failed to clear the ball.
He completed his hat-trick in the 69th minute after Neymar sent him clear of the defence and he ran on to finish emphatically.
Five minutes later, he drilled home the ball after it ricocheted around the Lyon penalty area.
- REUTERS
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