PARIS: A clinical Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain won 3-0 away to high-flying Reims on Saturday and moved to the top of the Ligue 1 table.
Mbappe opened the scoring in the third minute in Champagne country and then netted twice more in the second half to give PSG a win which moved the reigning champions to the summit a point above Nice, who drew at Montpellier on Friday.
PSG were also grateful to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma who denied Reims a route back into the game with a string of superb saves, as Luis Enrique’s team recovered from their midweek Champions League loss away to AC Milan.
Mbappe is Ligue 1’s leading scorer with 13 goals in 11 appearances this season, with the France captain also having netted twice in European competition.
That 2-1 defeat in Milan on Tuesday left PSG’s hopes of reaching the Champions League knockout phase in the balance with two group games still to go, but they do finally appear to have found their rhythm domestically after a stuttering start to the campaign.
Luis Enrique’s team were targeting a fifth straight victory in Ligue 1 and they went ahead almost from the off as Mbappe met Ousmane Dembele’s cross from the right with a superb side-foot volley low across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner of the net.
Reims were denied an equalizer as a fine goal by Japanese international Junya Ito was disallowed for offside, and the same player was later denied by Donnarumma who also produced a superb reaction save from Amir Richardson before the interval.
A PSG side missing the suspended Achraf Hakimi and Randal Kolo Muani were again grateful to Donnarumma when the Italian repelled a Marshall Munetsi header on 56 minutes, and three minutes later they went 2-0 up.
Mbappe evaded his marker with a brilliant darting run to the back post where he converted a perfect assist rolled across the face of goal by Carlos Soler.
Donnarumma was at it again as he once more denied Zimbabwe midfielder Munetsi, before Mbappe finished off a cutback from substitute Bradley Barcola to make it 3-0 with eight minutes left.
Nice are still unbeaten this season after their stalemate on Friday in Montpellier, and they have still not been behind in a single game this season.
Third-placed Monaco can leapfrog their Cote d’Azur rivals on goal difference with a win in Saturday’s late game at Le Havre.
Mbappe bags hat-trick as PSG go top of Ligue 1
https://arab.news/97tfv
Mbappe bags hat-trick as PSG go top of Ligue 1
- PSG were also grateful to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma
- Mbappe is Ligue 1’s leading scorer with 13 goals in 11 appearances
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
