MESSI SPECIAL
Argentinian superstar hits winner as PSG come from behind to beat Toulouse
- Lionel Messi scored a superb second-half winner as a Paris Saint-germain side missing the injured Kylian Mbappe and Neymar came from behind to beat Toulouse 2-1 on Saturday and consolidate their lead at the top of Ligue 1.
Dutch midfielder Branco van den Boomen gave mid-table Toulouse the lead at the Parc des Princes from a 20th-minute freekick, only for Achraf Hakimi to curl in the equaliser with halftime approaching.
Messi then put PSG in front just before the hour mark with a glorious first-time strike on his left foot low into the corner of the net from just outside the area.
It was Messi’s 10th Ligue 1 goal of the season and his 15th for his club this campaign, as the World Cup winner stepped up in the absence of PSG’S two other superstar attackers.
The Qatar-owned club are now eight points clear at the top of the table from Marseille, who play Nice on Sunday and then host PSG in the French Cup last 16 in midweek.
Mbappe will miss that game and the Champions League last16 first leg against Bayern Munich on February 14 after being ruled out for three weeks with a thigh injury suffered in the 3-1 win at Montpellier last Wednesday.
Neymar missed a second successive game with an apparently minor adductor problem, meaning it was left to Messi to lead the attack alongside the 20-year-old Hugo Ekitike with support from
Vitinha and Carlos Soler.
Injury problems
But Christophe Galtier’s side have other issues, with Sergio Ramos unable to play, Marco Verratti suspended, and Renato Sanches forced to come off in tears just 12 minutes into the game.
“Leo is holding the team to
gether,” Galtier told broadcaster Amazon Prime. “It is not just two players we are missing. There is Kylian and ‘Ney’ but also Marco Verratti and Sergio Ramos.
“He takes on the role of leader naturally, and he did so in midweek too. He was so important to the way we played. He takes the initiative. We need to give him
the ball even more.”
Portugal midfielder Sanches was starting for just the fifth time since joining from Lille at the start of the season but had to come off with what looked like a hamstring injury. He was replaced by teenage defender El Chadaille Bitshiabu, with Danilo Pereira moving up into the midfield, and
the substitute was partly responsible when PSG fell behind.
Bitshiabu was booked for bringing down Zakaria Aboukhlal 25 metres from goal, and Van den Boomen sent the resulting free-kick low into the left corner of the net with Gianluigi Donnarumma beaten.