I’d do it again, says Mbappe after red card

PARIS: Kylian Mbappe said he had no regrets after his sendingoff in Paris Saint-Germain’s win at Nimes on Saturday, and claimed he would not hesitate to do the same thing again.

Having earlier scored, the 19year-old striker was shown a straight red card in stoppage time at the end of PSG’s 4-2 victory after shoving over the Nimes midfielder Teji Savanier.

That foul was in retaliation after he had been scythed down by Savanier, and the Nimes player was also sent off for the foul.

“No, no, no,” said Mbappe afterwards when asked if he wished he had not responded the way he did. “If I had to do it again, I would and I would apologise to all the supporters and to everyone.

“I cannot tolerate that sort of gesture, it doesn’t belong on a football field. It wouldn’t be a problem if he intended to play the ball, but he made no attempt to play the ball, we all saw it.

“But it doesn’t matter, I’ll go and defend myself before the disciplinary committee.”

France national team coach Didier Deschamps said Mbappe is a target for defenders and will need to learn self-control.

“He’s going to have to learn to control himself. Kylian is a World Cup winner,” said Deschamps, who will be working with the striker ahead of the Netherlands v France Nations League match next Sunday. “I’ll talk with him, he was likely afraid of getting injured.”

Mbappe will now be automatically suspended for PSG’s next game, a home match against Saint-Etienne on Sept 14 that precedes a trip to Liverpool in the Champions League.

PSG have now won all four Ligue 1 games this season under new German coach Thomas Tuchel.

• BERLIN: Robert Lewandowski scored one goal and set up another as champions Bayern Munich mauled VfB Stuttgart 3-0 on Saturday to maintain their perfect start to the Bundesliga season.

VfL Wolfsburg, who narrowly escaped relegation last season, joined them on six points after coming from a goal down to cruise past hosts Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 with their second upset in two matches.