Paris Saint-Germain finally did what we have been waiting for them to do for months with a 4-1 thrashing of Club Brugge to close out their UEFA Champions League Group A campaign in style on Tuesday.
Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi both scored twice against the Belgians as Mauricio Pochettino’s men finally turned on the style to finish one point behind Manchester City despite having only lost once all group.
The French superstar needed less than two minutes to open the scoring at Parc des Princes after linking up with Nuno Mendes and Mbappe was at the double five minutes later as Angel Di Maria brilliantly turned provider.
PSG smelled blood and were not done at two with Messi adding a brilliant third before half-time and later capping the scoring with a fourth from the penalty spot after Mats Rits had pulled one back for the visitors.
Although the result counted for next to nothing given the makeup of the group, it was refreshing to see the star-studded Parisien outfit finally live up to their billing and dominate an opponent which has rarely been the case domestically or in Europe.
Mbappe, Messi and Di Maria dovetailed the way they have been expected to while Gianluigi Donnarumma was sharp at the other end to ensure that Philippe Clement’s men did not break through until it was too late.
“Nothing was at stake, but the Champions League is still the Champions League,” said Mbappe post-match. We took the game seriously and wanted to win in front of our fans. It was a complete performance and much, much better. We can still improve, but this was a small step forward.”
“It was a very good game,” added Pochettino. “We started very well. The players on the pitch connected well. We put together some good sequences. We deserved this. I really liked how we played great football in a great atmosphere.”
The big question now will be if PSG can get it together in the knockout phase against whoever they face and whether it will even be Pochettino calling the shots as speculation continues to swirl over his and sporting director Leonardo’s futures.
However, if the French giants can replicate this and start justifying their comfy lead at the Ligue 1 summit before they return to continental action, then nobody will want to come up against them as group runners-up.
Having already beaten City once and having only lost once in Manchester, the men from the capital will feel that they have much more to give this edition, and this might have been a brief glimpse of what is to come in the second half of the season with Neymar also back in the mix.
