Ajit Karn
Lionel Messi scored and Kylian Mbappé missed two penalties before getting injured as Paris Saint-Germain defeated Montpellier 3-1 on Wednesday to move five points clear at the top of the French league.
Mbappé went down clutching his right leg just below the knee and limped off in the 21st minute, having earlier missed a penalty kick twice and blasted the rebound over an open net.
It was unclear what his injury consisted of. He was also captured by television cameras rubbing the back of his left thigh as he walked to the dressing room.
The head coach of Paris Saint-Germain, Christophe Galtier, told Canal Plus that his player received a blow behind the knee, and later stated at a press conference that the injury does not appear serious.
“Is it a bruised rib? We do not yet know. It doesn’t look very serious,” Galtier said. We are not overly concerned.
lionel Messi scored PSG’s second goal in the 72nd minute after being set up by Fabián Ruiz,lionel Messi had opened the scoring for PSG in the 55th minute.
Striker Arnaud Nordin scored the equaliser in the 89th minute, and 16-year-old substitute Warren Zare-Emery scored his first goal for the club in stoppage time, making the score 3-1.
“It’s my first goal in the top flight, so I’m ecstatic,” Zare-Emery said after becoming the youngest player to score for PSG. In March, the midfielder turns seventeen.
Kylian Mbappé:
▪️ Misses a penalty
▪️ Given a retake
▪️ Misses again
▪️ Misses the rebound
▪️ Leaves the game after 21 minutes with an injury— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 1, 2023
The defending champion PSG is five points ahead of second-place Marseille, which won 2-0 at Nantes to move one point ahead of Lens into the automatic Champions League spot in second place.
Lens was defeated by Nice, 1-0, for its first home league loss and second overall.
PSG travels to Monaco and Marseille this month, as well as Marseille in the French Cup, and faces Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie on February 14.
Earlier, Marseille extended its winless streak to ten games.
In the 58th minute, Marseille scored when Nantes central defender Joao Victor put the ball into his own net while tackling advancing winger Cengiz Ünder inside the penalty area. Morocco’s World Cup semifinalist midfielder Azzedine Ounahi scored the second goal in stoppage time on his debut for Marseille.
Nantes had not allowed a goal in its previous seven games. Under coach Igor Tudor, Marseille has won seven of its last eight league matches.
Gaetan Laborde scored for the second consecutive game as Nice handed Lens its first league loss since October 9th.
Fourth-place With a 3-2 home victory over 19th-place Auxerre, Monaco maintained a one-point lead over fifth-place Rennes. Wissam Ben Yedder and Eliesse Ben Seghir, a 17-year-old attacking midfielder, scored for Monaco, which has scored 13 goals in its last four league games.
Amine Gouiri scored twice in Rennes’ 3-0 home victory over 18th-place Strasbourg, while Lyon and Brest drew 0-0 at home.
Folarin Balogun, who scored the equaliser in stoppage time during Reims’ 1-1 draw at PSG on Sunday, scored a hat trick in his team’s 4-2 victory over Lorient to move to the top of the scoring charts. His 15 goals put him ahead of PSG’s Kylian Mbappé by one.
Balogun, who began his career with Premier League club Arsenal, scored a hat trick against goalkeeper Vito Mannone, who also began his career with Arsenal, and came close to scoring a fourth goal near the match’s conclusion.
Thijs Dallinga scored his team’s first goal in a 4-1 victory over Troyes, adding to the two goals he scored last weekend for Toulouse.
Also, Clermont drew 0-0 at Lille, and last-place Angers lost 2-1 at home to fellow struggler Ajaccio, whose striker Mounam El Idrissy scored in the fourth minute of injury time.
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Angers has lost a record-setting 13 consecutive matches in the French league and has won only two of 21 games this season.
