He finished the year 2021 with 51 goals on the clock, he started the next one with a hat-trick. Kylian Mbappé will not ease off in 2022, and Paris-Saint-Germain will be able to count on the efficiency of his striker for, at least, the last six months of his contract, hoping to have it extended.
The capital club seriously held its rank of favorite by eliminating Vannes (National 2, fourth division), Monday, January 3, in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France (4-0). It was not the stealthy flyby of a drone, which caused the interruption for a minute of the meeting in the first period, which deflected the defending champion from his plan, the same one that worked in the previous round (3 -0), against the amateurs of the Feignies-Aulnoye Entente.
Mauricio Pochettino’s players should certainly have taken shelter earlier in the game, but in the cold, with only two training sessions in the legs after the truce, and without Lionel Messi (suffering from Covid-19), he was hard to expect more from them. Angel di Maria, Marquinhos and Mauro Icardi were preserved on the bench, as was Leandro Paredes. Within an experimental eleven, with young Edouard Michut and Xavi Simons, and midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum converted into a makeshift left winger, Mbappé still found a way to shine.
“I am happy to restart. We were serious. It was not an easy game for us to play, but we were there ”, greeted the world champion, at the microphone of France 3. “He’s a top world player”, recalled his trainer, Mauricio Pochettino.
150 goals in the PSG jersey
For the fourth time in a row, the French striker has scored more than two goals in a meeting, registering his 150e goal under the Parisian colors. After a frustrating first period, like his well-placed free kick that he sent into the wall, the striker was patient. It is also Presnel Kimpembe who scored the first goal of the year for PSG, by heading a corner. The defender, promoted to captain, has only scored his second achievement in 203 professional matches with his training club. He has waited almost three years since his first time, on the 8e first leg of the Champions League, Manchester United.
Kylian Mbappé, him, released his counter after the break, in his style, launched at full speed by Kimpembe, against goalkeeper Clément Pétrel who, in the duel, slowed the ball… without diverting it from the net. The porter could not do anything on his skylight missile a few minutes later either. Sober in his celebration, Mbappé was not more expensive after his third goal, following a one-two with Eric Junior Dina-Ebimbe.
The Parisians now have five days to prepare for their trip to Lyon on Sunday, a shock to the championship that PSG will tackle with a very different team.
