Mbappe misses penalty, gets injured
Paris Saint-Germain extended their lead at the top of Ligue 1 with a 3-1 win at Montpellier on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) but their evening was overshadowed by an injury to Kylian Mbappe, who had earlier missed a penalty.
The France superstar had an eighth-minute spotkick saved by Montpellier’s Benjamin
Lecomte and then remarkably saw his second attempt turned onto the post by the goalkeeper after the referee ordered a retake.
Mbappe then limped off with what looked like a hamstring injury midway through the first half, raising the alarm for PSG with the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Bayern Munich now less than two weeks away.
Speaking after the game, coach Christophe Galtier suggested the injury was down to a knock rather than a muscle problem.
“He took a knock to the back of the knee or the back of the thigh, so we’ll see,” said Galtier.
“I’m not too worried,” he added. “It’s a bruise or a contusion, we don’t know yet.
“With the run of matches we don’t want to take risks with a very busy fixture list, but it doesn’t appear that serious.”
PSG host Bayern in Paris on February 14, with the second leg in Germany on March 8. They are desperate to avoid a repeat of last season when they were knocked out at the same stage of the Champions League by Real Madrid.
After winning just one of their last four league games, Wednesday’s awkward trip for PSG saw them also lose Sergio Ramos to injury and have two goals disallowed before Fabian Ruiz put them ahead 10 minutes into the second half.
Ruiz then set up Lionel Messi to make it 2-0 with a deft finish in the 72nd minute, the Argentine scoring his 14th club goal of the season.
Sixteen-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery made sure of the win in stoppage time after Arnaud Nordin — a friend of Mbappe’s from their time together at France’s national training academy — had pulled one back.
PSG, who were without the rested Neymar, extended their lead at the top of the table from three to five points after Lens lost 1-0 at home to Nice.
“It was a good performance in general,” Galtier said.
“There was an incredible scenario in the first half with the retaken penalty, we hit the post, had goals disallowed and two injuries because Sergio Ramos was involved in a collision and on falling he hurt his adductor, but apparently it is nothing serious.”