MAURO ICARDI bagged a hat-trick but was still almost overshadowed by Kylian Mbappe’s outrageous rabona attempt.
It was a comfortable night for Paris Saint-Germain as they thumped Saint-Etienne 6-1 in the final edition of the Coupe de la Ligue.
Mauro Icardi bagged his first hat-trick since March 2018 as PSG thumped Saint-Etienne 6-1Credit: Getty – Contributor
The Argentine opened the scoring with two minutes on the clock and completed the treble after half-timeCredit: AFP or licensors
PSG clearly are taking the tournament – which will be scrapped at the end of this season – rather seriously and took just two minutes to open the scoring.
Icardi timed his run in this box well and clipped past Jessy Moulin in the visitor’s goal from a tight angle.
Saint-Etienne – who have been without on-loan Arsenal defender William Saliba since November 3 – did not make things any easier for themselves, going down to ten men in the 31st minute.
Mahdi Camara and Mathieu Debuchy had both been lucky to escape with just bookings for shocking fouls before Wesley Fofana was shown a second yellow for catching Angel Di Maria as the winger tried to break.
And then the floodgates opened.
Neymar produced an exquisite finish to dink over Moulin to make it 2-0 and it was three on the stroke of half-time in hilarious fashion.
Di Maria’s low cross was not properly cleared by one defender, firing the ball into a team-mate – it then bounced off the post and then Moulin’s leg and into the back of the net for an unfortunate own goal.
Icardi grabbed his second of the night four minutes into the second half, firing past a defender on the line after Mbappe rounded the goalkeeper.
And the Argentine completed his first hat-trick since March 2018 when Mbappe unselfishly squared across goal for him just before the hour mark.
In truth, Icardi – whose wife and agent Wanda Nara has revealed she posts sexy snaps on Instagram to cheer her fans up – should have had a fourth but skewed a simple effort wide of the post.
Mbappe finally did get the goal his performance deserved with 67 minutes on the clock – Icardi brought the ball out of the air expertly and then returned the favour for his team-mate to slide home at the back post.
Down 6-0, Saint-Etienne scored the consolation of all consolations as Di Maria gave a penalty away for a blatant push.
Ex-Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye had his initial effort saved by former Fulham goalkeeper Sergio Rico – but he headed in the rebound.
Then Mbappe went for his moment of magic.
Sub Edinson Cavani – linked with a move to Atletico Madrid this month – played a through ball that was dummied by Neymar and the World Cup winner attempted the spectacular from just outside of the box.
He got a clean connection on it but despite his outrageous effort beating the goalkeeper, it went narrowly wide of the far post.
And fans were quick to give Mbappe plenty of banter on Twitter – comparing him to a budget Erik Lamela.
The Spurs man famously scored a rabona in the Europa League against Asteras Tripolis in October 2014.
One said: “Only Erik Lamela can score a rabona from outside the area.”
Another wrote “Easy for some…” with a photo of Lamela’s effort.
A third added: “He’s no Erik Lamela though.”
And final user simply replied: “Lamela wannabe.”
Kylian Mbappe almost stole the show with a brilliant rabona effortCredit: BT Sport
It did not quite have the same result as Lamela’s memorable effort against Asteras Tripolis in October 2014Credit: ITV
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
