{"id":35831,"date":"2021-02-17T10:22:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T11:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35831"},"modified":"2021-02-17T12:04:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T12:04:49","slug":"majestic-mbappe-scores-three-as-dominant-psg-outclass-barcelona-4-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35831","title":{"rendered":"Majestic Mbappe scores three as dominant PSG outclass Barcelona 4-1"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Barcelona:\u00a0Paris St Germain\u2019s Kylian Mbappe scored a stunning hat-trick as his side overcame the absence of Neymar to thrash Barcelona 4-1 away in their Champions League last-16 first leg on Tuesday to move within full view of the quarter-finals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lionel Messi had blasted Barca ahead with a penalty in the first half but Mbappe pulled the French champions level with a classy piece of control and finishing to complete a flowing team move also involving Marco Verratti and Layvin Kurzawa.<\/p>\n

Mbappe, who had not scored in the Champions League knockouts for two years before Tuesday, smashed PSG into the lead in the 65th minute while Moise Kean took advantage of some woeful Barca marking to head in a third goal for the visitors in the 70th.<\/p>\n

The insatiable Mbappe looked hungry for more though and, after being denied his third goal by Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, he completed his treble in the 85th minute by curling the ball past the German into the top corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to come here and win and we did that in style,\u201d said the 22-year-old France striker. \u201cTonight was magnificent, but we haven\u2019t won anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barca overcame a 4-0 defeat to PSG in a last-16 first leg in 2017 by winning the second leg at home 6-1 and the Catalans now face another daunting task in turning this tie around when they visit the Parc des Princes on March 10.<\/p>\n

Barca coach Ronald Koeman had no complaints about the heavy defeat and was pessimistic about the prospects of another turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result reflect how superior PSG were, they were much more effective than us,\u201d said the Dutchman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could tell you lies but the fact is that at 4-1 down from the home leg, there are very few chances of going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

BLOWN AWAY<\/h2>\n

Barca\u2019s last Champions League knockout game was their humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in last year\u2019s quarter-finals but they went into Tuesday\u2019s game on the back of seven La Liga wins in a row and were boosted by the return of serial winner Gerard Pique in defence after nearly three months out.<\/p>\n

Yet they were utterly blown away by Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s side, who in addition to missing former Barca forward Neymar were also without influential winger Angel di Maria.<\/p>\n

Mauro Icardi should have given last year\u2019s runners-up the lead when he strolled through on goal but the Argentine scuffed his shot and Barca\u2019s teenage midfielder Pedri recovered to clear.<\/p>\n

The hosts then got a lucky break when Frenkie de Jong was accidentally tripped by Layvin Kurzawa and Messi smashed his penalty beyond former Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas to score a fourth goal in this season\u2019s competition, all from spot-kicks.<\/p>\n

PSG responded emphatically with their classy team goal after 32 minutes and should have gone ahead before the break when Kurzawa was thwarted by a fingertip save from Ter Stegen and Icardi headed just wide from a corner.<\/p>\n

Barca had their moments too, Antoine Griezmann showing exceptional pace to sprint towards goal from the halfway line but landing his shot just wide of the far post.<\/p>\n

The second half belonged to PSG though, and no player symbolised their confidence better than the resplendent Mbappe, who became the first player to score a visiting hat-trick at the Camp Nou since Andriy Shevchenko in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to give the best of myself with PSG, this shirt means a lot to me,\u201d added the Frenchman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shirt that means a lot to me. I haven\u2019t always succeeded and maybe I\u2019ll have bad games, but I\u2019ve never been someone to hide, even if I make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barcelona:\u00a0Paris St Germain\u2019s Kylian Mbappe scored a stunning hat-trick as his side overcame the absence of Neymar to thrash Barcelona 4-1 away in their Champions […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35833,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35831\/revisions\/35833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}