Paris Saint-Germain 5-1 FC Lorient

THE MATCH

PSG were aiming to return to winning ways after their 3-0 thumping away to AS Monaco in their last game before the international break. They found relegation-threatened Lorient to be obliging opponents, although as usual it is tempting to wonder how things would have turned out had Mbappé not been there.

The World Cup-winning striker set up Neymar to fire in the 12th-minute opener and then got on the scoresheet himself to make it 2-0 just before the half-hour mark as he collected a pass from Idrissa Gana Gueye before beating goalkeeper Matthieu Dreyer low at his near post.

There were signs of the recent slackness returning to PSG’s play as Lorient came back into the game in the second half. The visitors pulled one back in the 56th minute when a careless backpass by Achraf Hakimi was pounced upon by Terem Moffi and the Nigerian beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to reduce the deficit.

However, Hakimi made up for his error by setting up PSG’s third goal midway through the second half. His high pressing won back possession in the Lorient third and Hakimi then supplied Mbappé, who skipped away from Julien Laporte before drilling low into the net.

Mbappé was not finished there as he cut the ball back from the byline in the 73rd minute for Lionel Messi to control and fire in off the underside of the bar. That was just his third Ligue 1 goal this season. In the 90th minute Neymar played a one-two with Mbappé before converting his second of the night and seventh league goal of the campaign.

PSG are 12 points clear of Olympique de Marseille at the top of the table with eight games left, while Lorient are just a point above the bottom three.

THE PLAYER: Kylian Mbappé

Who else? Mbappé now has 17 Ligue 1 goals this season as well as a league-high 13 assists.

THE STAT: 1

As in this was the first time that Mbappé, Neymar and Messi have all scored in the same game for PSG.

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