Neymar Jr. celebrated his 100th Paris Saint-Germain appearance with a goal and Kylian Mbappé scored twice in a 4-0 defeat of 10-man Montpellier Hérault SC at the Parc des Princes on Friday.
Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 Montpellier
THE MATCH
Coach Mauricio Pochettino was back on the Paris bench after a positive Covid-19 test forced him to miss last week’s win at Angers SCO, and his side were far too strong for an out-of-form Montpellier who travelled to the capital without a win in six and saw their hopes of causing an upset dashed by the early sending-off of goalkeeper Jonas Omlin.
The game was just 16 minutes old when Swiss star Omlin raced out of his box and cut down Mbappé. He was initially shown a yellow card but that was upgraded to red following a VAR review. Substitute goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud came on in what was a rather bizarre turn of events -- almost exactly a year ago he was sent off in the 17th minute of the same fixture, and 10-man Montpellier went on to lose 5-0.
It was not quite as bad this time for Michel Der Zakarian’s side, but it was close. Mbappé opened the scoring when he controlled Angel di Maria’s pass on the edge of the box and beat Bertaud with a deft finish (34’).
Navas, Marquinhos forced off
That was the only goal that separated the sides at half-time, and Pochettino was dealt a double injury blow as goalkeeper Keylor Navas was forced to stay in the dressing room at half-time and captain Marquinhos came off shortly after the restart. Sergio Rico came on in goal and Marco Verratti took the armband, as the Quatre Fantastiques in attack tore Montpellier apart.
Neymar made it 2-0 on the hour mark from Mbappé’s cutback as he marked a century of appearances for PSG in the best possible fashion. A minute later it was 3-0 when Alessandro Florenzi set up Mauro Icardi to score -- preferred to Moise Kean in attack, the Argentine made it three goals in his last four games.
Mbappé made it 4-0 with his second of the night in the 63rd minute and there was very nearly a stunning fifth goal. Layvin Kurzawa set himself up for an acrobatic overhead kick which was turned onto the bar by Bertaud’s fingertips.
Paris are now three points clear at the top from second-placed LOSC, who go to Stade Rennais FC on Sunday. Montpellier have tumbed into the bottom half.
THE PLAYER: Kylian Mbappé
Mbappé’s apparent loss of form has been the subject of much discussion in recent days, but he was back to his most influential here. The France superstar forced the foul which led to Omlin’s pivotal early sending-off, and he then scored twice -- his first goals of the Pochettino era taking him to a Ligue 1 Uber Eats best tally of 14 for the season. And there was an assist for Neymar, for good measure.
THE STAT: 100
Neymar made his 100th appearance for PSG since his world-record transfer from Barcelona in 2017. His goal left him with 81 strikes in that time, a remarkable strike rate. He has 11 in 15 games this season and a total of 51 in 61 Ligue 1 appearances. The Brazilian has certainly delivered.