With his 201st goal for the club, Kylian Mbappe became Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer. The Ligue 1 leaders beat Nantes 4-2 on Saturday to get ready for their crucial trip to Bayern Munich.
With a brace in last week’s victory over Marseille, the French superstar equaled Edinson Cavani’s previous record of 200 goals and went one better by scoring in extra time at the Parc des Princes.
Before Nantes fought back to draw level, PSG had wasted a two-goal lead. Lionel Messi had put PSG ahead, and Jaouen Hadjam’s own goal had made it 2-0 within 17 minutes.
Ignatius Ganago and Ludovic Blas scored for the visitors, but Mbappe set up Danilo Pereira to give PSG the lead on the hour and then scored his record-breaking goal late on.
Since signing with Monaco in 2017 at the age of 18, Mbappe has reached the record in just 247 games.
Uruguay star Cavani required 298 games, and seven years, to lay out the past record in 2020.
Mbappe
Following the game, the club presented Mbappe, who is 24 years old, with a trophy to commemorate his achievement.
“I play to make history, and I’ve always said I wanted to make history in my city, in my country’s capital, in France. I’m doing that now. It’s magnificent, but there’s still a lot to be done,” Mbappe, who was named captain after the game, told Canal Plus, a broadcaster.
“Being a native Parisian, this means a lot to me. If you had told me that I would break the record and score the goal while wearing the captain’s armband, I would have laughed.
As a result, PSG gained an 11-point advantage at the top of Ligue 1 ahead of Sunday’s match against closest rival Marseille and Wednesday’s match between Bayern and the Qatar-owned club in the Champions League last-16.
PSG are 1-0 down in the first leg against the Bavarians, and if they don’t make it to the quarterfinals in Europe, it will be a major setback for their season.
Hakimi watches from stands
Hakimi watches from the stands One day after being accused of rape by a 24-year-old woman, injured Moroccan star Achraf Hakimi watched from the stands at the Parc des Princes.
Neymar was also a spectator, but he won’t be back for Bayern’s match, and Presnel Kimpembe, the center back, is likely to miss the rest of the season with an achilles injury.
In the second half of the game against Nantes, coach Christophe Galtier had to replace captain Marquinhos and right back Nordi Mukiele, who both suffered injuries.
Just Fontaine, the legendary former France striker who scored 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup and died on Wednesday at the age of 89, was honored with a minute of applause prior to the game.
Also as a coach, Fontaine led PSG to 1974 promotion to the top French football league.
The Parisians took the lead in the 12th minute when Messi converted Nuno Mendes’ deflected low cross to score his 13th goal of the season in Ligue 1.
According to PSG
PSG was on top thanks to the unfortunate Hadjam own goal, but a shot from Blas that caught Gianluigi Donnarumma off guard just after the half-hour mark brought Nantes back into the game, and a header from Cameroonian forward Ganago made it 2-2 before the break.
PSG also blew a two-goal lead in their previous home game against Lille a fortnight ago, but they came back to win 4-3. They did the same thing here, with Mbappe being the star.
Danilo scored from his assist to make it 3-2 just before the hosts were given a penalty for fouling Mukiele; however, a VAR check determined that the contact occurred outside the box.
Before Mbappe struck right at the end with a finish on the turn, it appeared that he would have to wait for his record.
Prior Focal point botched the opportunity to move above Marseille into second spot as they drew 1-1 at home to northern adversaries Lille, for whom Canada star Jonathan David snatched the balancer.
