CNN
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Kylian Mbappé missed two penalties and an open aim within the area of 100 seconds earlier than coming off injured in Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-1 win towards Montpelier.
Simply seven minutes into the sport, PSG was awarded a penalty for a foul on defender Sergio Ramos, however Mbappé – who transformed three penalties within the World Cup remaining seven weeks in the past – noticed his shot saved by Benjamin Lecomte.
Mbappé had his blushes spared when VAR noticed that Lecomte had stepped off his line earlier than the shot and ordered a retake. However Lecomte guessed appropriately once more, tipping Mbappé’s penalty onto the submit. The rebounding ball went straight to the PSG ahead however he volleyed over from six yards.
Issues went from unhealthy to worse for the Parisians when, shortly after, Mbappé pulled up holding his hamstring and needed to be substituted off.
A membership assertion on Thursday confirmed that Mbappé shall be out for about three weeks, that means he’ll doubtless miss PSG’s crunch tie within the Champions League towards German large Bayern Munich. Sergio Ramos can also be a doubt after choosing up a knock.
Including to his embarrassment, Mbappé was overtaken within the high scorer charts in Ligue 1 by Reims striker Folarin Balogun who himself scored towards PSG on the weekend to disclaim the Parisians a win.
With out Mbappé, the Parisians went on to win the sport thanks partly to World Cup darling Lionel Messi.
Each Messi and Achraf Hakimi noticed objectives disallowed for offside earlier than summer time signing Fabián Ruiz opened his account for his new workforce within the fifty fifth minute. Fifteen minutes later, Messi doubled PSG’s lead after ending a beautiful workforce transfer.
Montpellier pulled one again late on by Arnaud Nordin earlier than PSG teen Warren Zaïre-Emery closed the sport off within the 92nd minute, turning into the youngest ever aim scorer in PSG’s historical past.
Regardless of ultimately grabbing the win, PSG’s famous person squad has struggled since returning to membership soccer after the World Cup.
The French champion noticed loads of its gamers shine on the World Cup, together with Mbappé, Messi, Neymar and Hakimi, however the workforce has suffered an obvious hangover because the soccer bonanza in Qatar.
It misplaced twice within the league since returning to Ligue 1, was held to a draw on the weekend and now will doubtlessly be lacking a few of its key stars going right into a run of fixtures that features two matches towards Bayern Munich, a pair of video games towards fierce rivals Marseille and a visit to Monaco.
“We aren’t going to cover behind the post-World Cup calendar,” mentioned coach Gaultier.
“It’s been just a few weeks since our performances weren’t on the identical degree as within the first a part of the season. We should work, we should discover options, and reconnect.”
The workforce should flip issues round, doubtlessly with out Mbappé, whether it is to keep away from one other yr of disappointment in its hunt for an elusive first Champions League title.