In the third match week of UEFA Champions league, PSG hosted Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in the Parc de Princes stadium. Both the teams came to the ground with different aspirations. As on one hand, Leipzig was still searching for their first victory of the season in the Champions League, to remain relevant. On the other hand, PSG was looking for a win to regain their position at the top of the table, after Manchester City bashed Brugge 5-0 earlier in the evening. With Neymar out with injury and Di Maria suspended, Julian Draxler and Ander Herrera replaced them respectively. While Messi and Mbappe still remained intact upfront.
Right from the get going it felt as if Leipzig had a point to prove and they came hard on the PSG defense. They breached it several times, but Navas in goal always managed to keep them out. From the opening minutes itself, one could tell that both the team’s intentions meant goal, and that is what we got in the 9th minute of the game when against the flow of the play Mbappe netted the first goal of the game. Although that did not at all affect the Leipzig players who continued finding holes in the PSG defence and finally got rewarded when Angelino finally placed a great cross to find Andre Silva who made no mistake in burying the ball past Navas, in the 28th minute. At half time, both the teams were locked in at 1-1.
The second half was Leipzig’s for the taking as they scored another one past Navas in the 57th minute. It was Angelino once again who found a white t-shirt in the box and Nardi Mukiele did not make any mistake with his first-time finish. The next ten minutes were dominated by the German club and it felt as if they were going to run away with this advantage. But Messi and Mbappe had other ideas, as they combined to score the fourth goal of the match in the 67th minute. Messi and Mbappe switched positions to create space, as a result, Messi found the ball on his stronger foot. Although the initial shot was saved by Gulasci, Messi followed in the shot to score a tap-in. Leipzig from there onward seemed to have forgotten the script as they gave away an easy penalty which was converted into a goal by Messi in the 74th minute, which almost put the game to bed.
FULL-TIME: @PSG_English 3-2 @RBLeipzig_EN!
A big victory in the @ChampionsLeague 👊#UCL | #PSGRBL
🔴🔵 #AllezParis pic.twitter.com/gsY8eKj1Sx
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) October 19, 2021
Mbappe missed a 90+ minute penalty, which was a perfect chance for him and his team to double the scoring. As it stands, PSG is still on top of the group with 7 points to their name from 3 games, while Manchester City is in at 2nd with 6 points.
