With a 3-1 victory over Montpellier on Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain increased their lead atop Ligue 1, but Kylian Mbappe’s injury—who had previously missed a penalty—shadowed their night. The Montpellier goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte stopped the France superstar’s first penalty shot in the eighth minute, and then somehow turned away his second try after the referee signalled for a retake.
Midway through the first half, Mbappe hobbled off with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, increasing concern for PSG given the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 match against Bayern Munich is now less than two weeks away. Coach Christophe Galtier suggested following the game that the injury was caused more by a knock than by.
We’ll see, Galtier added, “He got a whack to the back of the knee or the back of the thigh. He continued, “I’m not too worried. We’re not sure if it’s a contusion or a bruise yet. ” We don’t want to take chances with a very packed fixture list because of the run of games, but it doesn’t seem that serious.
On February 14, PSG will play host to Bayern, with the return leg taking place in Germany on March 8. They are desperately trying to avoid what happened the previous year, when Real Madrid eliminated them from the Champions League at the same level. After winning just one of their last four league games, Wednesday’s awkward trip for PSG saw them also lose Sergio Ramos to injury and have two goals disallowed before Fabian Ruiz put them ahead 10 minutes into the second half.
In the 72nd minute, Lionel Messi made it 2-0 with a skillful finish after being set up by Ruiz. This was the Argentinean’s 14th club goal of the year. After Arnaud Nordin, a friend of Mbappe’s from their time together at France’s national training academy, had pulled one back, 16-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery secured the victory in stoppage time.
Lens lost 1-0 to Nice at home while Neymar rested. Galtier remarked, “It was a good performance overall. “There was an unbelievable scene in the first half with the retaken penalty, we hitting the post, having goals disallowed, and two injuries because Sergio Ramos was in a collision and on falling he injured his adductor, but it appears to be nothing major.”
The victory for PSG followed a discouraging end to the January transfer window on Tuesday when they were unable to complete the paperwork for the loan acquisition of Moroccan winger Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea despite the player passing a medical.
Gaetan Laborde scored the game’s lone goal for Nice as Lens dropped points at home for the first time this season after winning all 10 previous games there. PSG, who were without the rested Neymar, increased their lead at the end of the game. Earlier, Marseille defeated Nantes 2-0 to go above Lens into second place. The victory was won by an own goal from Joao Victor and a late goal from Azzedine Ounahi, the Moroccan World Cup star making his debut after joining the team in the January transfer window.
Fourth-placed Monaco defeated Auxerre 3-2, and Rennes, in fifth position, cruised to a 3-0 victory over struggling Strasbourg. Folarin Balogun, an attacking midfielder on loan from Arsenal, scored a hat-trick as Reims overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat Lorient 4-2 and extend their undefeated streak to 15 games. He had previously scored a last-second equaliser against PSG at the weekend. The bottom team Angers lost 2-1 against Ajaccio at home after conceding in stoppage time, setting a new record for the most consecutive defeats in the French first division. They are now 11 points from safety as a result of that result.
