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Kylian Mbappe highlighted the gulf between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain with a sensational hat-trick at Camp Nou in a Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday. Mbappe consigned their rivals to a crushing 4-1 defeat with a performance for the ages and it was a shame it played out in front of an empty stadium.
And to think of, it was Barcelona who were leading before the half-an-hour mark thanks to their talisman Lionel Messi who converted a spot-kick. Little did they know that the joy would be short-lived and soon become a distant memory when Mbappe equalised with a clever finish.
At the end of the first half, it was one-all but the scenario changed dramatically once the contest resumed with Mbappe scoring in the 65th minute before Moise Kean also found the back of the net to double PSG’s lead.
Mbappe completed his hat-trick in the 85th minute to bury the contest and give his team a three-goal advantage after the away leg of the tie. PSG are surely in a much comfortable spot to make the quarterfinals with Barcelona left in tatters and a mountain to climb if they even hope to overturn this deficit, let alone edge past their much superior rivals.
What the managers said?
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino revealed Mbappe had predicted their win. “Before the match, he asked me how many times I had won at Camp Nou. “‘Once,’ I told him. He replied to me: ‘Tomorrow, we are going to win a second time,'” ,” Pochettino said after the match. “He is a top player. Great footballers write their history. They evolve match after match. With this hat-trick, Kylian will be in the spotlight but we had no doubts.”
Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman admitted the superiority of their opponents, criticising his team’s defensive capabilities. “Surely the result reflects how superior they were. They were effective. In the first half it was more even. In the second half we had problems defensively. They proved physically to be very superior to us,” Koeman said.
“When you go ahead and they equalise quickly it’s always a problem. We didn’t defend that attack well. We weren’t paying attention to the ball on the wing or the centre. Particularly in the second half we have to admit that they were superior. They have shown that they have a more complete team than us. We have to accept it, improve things. We knew that this could happen because we are playing against a great team, a physical team with experience, for many reasons that is ahead of us,” he added.
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