PSG place heavy load on Mbappe

Kylian Mbappe struck his leagueleading 21st goal of the season as defending champion Paris Saintgermain won 4-1 at Strasbourg to stay three points behind leader Lille yesterday.

Coach Mauricio Pochettino defended his decision to play Mbappe for 88 minutes even though PSG have a big game coming up against Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday.

“The best preparation for him is to be playing. He’s a very intelligent lad, very mature in the way he thinks about what he does,” Pochettino said.

“Our medical staff gives us a lot of information, which allows us to analyse the form of the players. We didn’t take any risks with him, nor with any other player.”

The jet-heeled forward put PSG ahead in the 15th minute.

Mbappe latched onto a pass, cut inside a defender and slotted the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Matz Sels, who could have done better.

Moments earlier, Strasbourg midfielder Adrien Thomasson hit the post with a fine shot from just outside the penalty area, with goalkeeper Keylor Navas well beaten.

PSG took control after Mbappe’s goal.

Sels was beaten again in the 26th when winger Pablo Sarabia beat a defender on the edge of the area and drilled a low shot into the bottom corner, and Mbappe set up striker Moise Kean just before the break.

Pochettino replaced Navas at halftime with Sergio Rico as a precautionary measure, ahead of the quarterf-inal return leg against Bayern with PSG leading 3-2.

Rico was well beaten by 19-yearold striker Moise Sahi’s first league goal as he clipped an excellent halfvolley into the top corner from a cross in the 62nd.

Pochettino took the risk of keeping Mbappe on, even though the match already looked won after Leandro Paredes hit a fine free kick 10 minutes earlier for 4-1.

“Kylian is the first person who wants to play. He’s a World Cup winner, one of the best French players in the Champions League, a forward of great class,” Pochettino said. “I like his mentality, he wants to play in every competition and it shows his level of investment in the team. He’s an excellent player, but also a very endearing one who has great humility.”

In the other match yesterday, seventh-place Montpellier scored right at the start, just after halftime, and with seconds left in a 3-3 draw against sixth-place Marseille. —AP