PSG Thrashes Montpellier with 6-0 Victory in Dominant Ligue 1 Performance Without Kylian Mbappe
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defeated Montpellier 6-0 in a thrilling match at the Parc des Princes on Friday night.
Even without star player Kylian Mbappe, the team’s strong Ligue 1 season debut was highlighted by this decisive win. In addition to Marco Asensio, Lee Kang-in, Warren Zaire-Emery, and Achraf Hakimi scoring goals, Bradley Barcola scored twice.
After destroying Montpellier 6-0 on Friday, Paris Saint-Germain‘s coach Luis Enrique declared that his team had reached “perfection” to maintain their winning start to life without Kylian Mbappe. At the Parc des Princes, PSG’s Bradley Barcola scored twice, while Marco Asensio, Achraf Hakimi, Warren Zaire-Emery, and Lee Kang-in also found the net.
The Ligue 1 winners have already scored 10 goals in a row while winning their first two games of the year, indicating that even without the late superstar Mbappe, their future seems bright.
“It was an ideal evening,” stated Luis Enrique. “All 16 players who participated tonight were stars. We are searching for sixteen stars in both attack and defense; that is perfection.”
Though playing against weak opposition, PSG’s youthful squad—two adolescents in the starting lineup and eight players overall between the ages of 18 and 25—performed with energy and style.
Joao Neves, a 19-year-old midfielder from Portugal who was signed by Benfica during the offseason for a possible sum of 69.9 million euros ($78.2 million), made his debut.
A 19-year-old player who recently won an Olympic silver medal for France, Desire Doue, made his debut in the second part of the match after initially signing for 50 million euros from Rennes. The Spanish coach of PSG continued, “I think in two games you can already see the profile of the players we have brought in.”
“They are totally suited to our way of playing and I think they will all bring us a lot.” He added: “I am enjoying every training session with a very complete and versatile squad and players who are really eager to make history.”
Last week, PSG started their championship defense against Le Havre with a 3-1 victory thanks to three late goals; however, their performance here was far more polished and indicates that they will be tough to beat as they pursue their 11th French title in 13 seasons.
This is true even though they lost their all-time leading scorer, Kylian Mbappe, but it is impossible to overlook how much better they are than the opposition in Ligue 1.
Montpellier has not made any signings this summer, while PSG—supported by their Qatari owners—have spent 175 million euros, not including bonuses, on four new players.
Montpellier’s president, Laurent Nicollin, informed the sports newspaper L’Equipe on Friday that the team will receive just seven million euros from television this season due to the decrease in income following the agreement of a new, lower domestic TV deal.
“They dominated from start to finish and were much stronger than us,” Montpellier head coach Michel Der Zakarian stated.
Montpellier is essentially unable to compete due to the financial gap, and within four minutes of Barcola entering from the left, they were behind with a first-time toe-poke finish.
Just past the halfway mark of the first half, Barcola found Neves with a ball, and Neves’s cushioned lay-off found Asensio for the easy goal.
Eight minutes into the second half, Asensio released Ousmane Dembele on the right, and the striker sprinted away and squared for Barcola to tap in the third goal. The goal was of a similar caliber.
After an hour, the score was 5-0 thanks to goals from Nuno Mendes (crossing from the left to the far post, where Hakimi scored with a sidefoot volley) and Zaire-Emery (finished after nutmegging Kiki Kouyate in the box).
On minute 82, Lee, who had been left off the starting lineup, scored the sixth goal from outside the box after coming on as a substitute. Since Luis Enrique took over as coach just over a year ago, PSG has scored six goals in a Ligue 1 match twice; the other occasion occurred in a 6-2 victory at Montpellier in March.
On Saturday, Lyon will play host to Monaco, the runners-up from the previous season, followed by Lille taking on Angers and Saint-Etienne taking on Le Havre. On Sunday, Roberto De Zerbi’s Marseille, which defeated Brest 5-1 the previous weekend, will host Reims at home.
