Ligue 1: PSG makes short work of Montpellier thanks to a capital Mbappé

At the end of the 26th day of Ligue 1, PSG took to the Montpellier pitch this Sunday evening. A meeting which, on paper, should have looked like a walk in the park for the capital club facing a MHSC plagued by doubt but invigorated by a success last week in Nice (1-2). Deprived of Ousmane Dembélé, last minute package, Luis Enrique decided to line up a Barcola-Kolo Muani-Mbappé attack at La Mosson. In the midfield, Kang-In Lee took his place with Vitinha and Manuel Ugarte. From the first moments of the meeting, the Parisians set their pace. At a high pace, the capital club stifled its opponent. And despite a contentious contact between Beraldo and Nordin in the Ile-de-France area, PSG logically opened the scoring. Found on the edge of the Hérault surface, Vitinha dribbled past two opponents before arming an unstoppable strike for Dimitry Bertaud (0-1, 14th). Too strong for their opponents, Kylian Mbappé’s teammates then doubled the bet via the latter. Found on the left by Randal Kolo Muani, KM7 armed with a left-footed cross shot to give Paris the break (0-2, 22nd). Stunned, Michel Der Zakarian’s men nevertheless found the mental and technical resources to get back into the game before the break. While an agitated Arnaud Nordin reduced the gap half an hour into the game with a header (1-2, 30th), the Montpellier residents inherited a penalty following contact between Gianluigi Donnarumma and Tanguy Coulibaly. Just before the break, it was Téji Savanier who transformed the sentence to tie the scorers at the break (2-2, 45th).

And while we could have thought of an incredible turnaround in the situation after returning from the locker room, it was nothing of the sort. Pumped up, it was Kylian Mbappé himself who took charge of putting Paris Saint-Germain back in the lead. And how ! Found 25 meters on the left, the captain of the France team armed a powerful strike which hit the crossbar before returning (2-3, 50th). A blow to the back of the head for the locals who even conceded a fourth goal straight away following a clear look from Kang-In Lee (2-4, 53rd). And even if they came back from a two-goal deficit in the first half, it seemed illusory to believe that the MHSC would find the resources to come back to the score again. And in case some ardor could still reside in the Montpellier heads, Kylian Mbappé was once again the executioner of the gang at Michel Der Zakarian by scoring a third goal following a superb sequence in the area (2-5, 63rd). Penaud, Montpellier had a lot of difficulty against a more than sovereign PSG during the second act. The entry into play of Mousa Al-Tamari brought a breath of fresh air to the Hérault ranks but even his arabesques did not really cause any harm to the Parisian defense despite a penalty whistled then finally canceled by Florent Batta (84th). At the end of the match, PSG even scored a sixth goal with Nuno Mendes scoring a serve from his compatriot Vitinha (2-6, 89th). With this great success and style, Paris is getting even closer to the title and is now 12 points ahead of Brest, its runner-up. Valiant, the MHSC lowered its weapons in the second half. However, the face displayed by the Montpellier residents during the first act will certainly serve them in the race to maintain their position. As a reminder, the MHSC is 14th.