Lee, Mbappe goals give PSG French Champions trophy
Lee Kang-in and Kylian Mbappe scored first-half goals as Paris Saint-Germain won the first silverware of the French season on Wednesday, beating Toulouse 2-0 to claim the Champions Trophy. Lee, playing his final game before heading off to the Asian Cup in Qatar with South Korea, put PSG ahead in the third minute, leaving Toulouse with an uphill battle at the Parc des Princes.
Mbappe then added a superb second goal just before half-time, as Paris claimed the Champions Trophy for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons. “We were exceptional in the first half. It was our best 45 minutes of my time here,” said PSG coach Luis Enrique after claiming his first silverware as a coach since leaving Barcelona in 2017.
France’s version of a Super Cup is habitually the curtain-raiser to the season and has usually been staged abroad over the last 15 years, including in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the last campaign. This season’s edition was initially due to be played in Thailand in August before being postponed and held in PSG’s own stadium rather than on neutral ground.
Home advantage gave Luis Enrique’s team, the reigning Ligue 1 champions, the edge as they opened the scoring from one of their first attacks, Lee firing in from Ousmane Dembele’s cushioned first-time ball into the middle.
It was a third goal of the season for Lee, who is likely to have a big role to play as South Korea aim to win the Asian Cup for the first time since 1960. Toulouse, taking part after winning last season’s French Cup, almost equalised late in the first half when a Thijs Dallinga shot was tipped onto the post by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. — AFP