Kylian Mbappe: PSG forward sets another Champions League record with ‘perfect’ substitute hat-trick
Paris Saint-Germain went some way to confirming their place in the Champions League knockout stages with a 5-0 win over Club Brugge.
Thomas Tuchel’s men currently sit seven points above Brugge in third place, having won all three of their opening games without conceding.
Mauro Icardi opened the scoring for PSG and added a second before the game was up, but the star of the show was inevitably Kylian Mbappe.
The Frenchman is undoubtedly one of the best young players in world football and has been tipped to replace Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the game when the pair finally call time on their illustrious careers.
But the 20-year-old has had a stuttering start to the 2019/20 campaign, suffering with injury issues that have seen Mbappe miss six of PSG’s 14 games so far, and beginning Tuesday’s Champions League clash in Brugge on the bench.
With the game still open at 1-0, Mbappe was brought on by Tuchel with 38 minutes remaining and wasted little time in reminding everyone just what he is capable of. Less than 10 minutes after coming on, Mbappe doubled PSG’s lead heading home after Simon Mignolet had parried Angel di Maria’s cross.
He then capitalised on lax defending from Club Brugge to set up Icardi’s second just two minutes later, all but securing the win. But Mbappe wasn’t done there.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Mbappe got his second goal of the game, latching onto Di Maria’s pass to round the goalkeeper and slot home with his right foot. His third came four minutes later through another Di Maria assist, with a left-footed finish coolly beating Mignolet.
A perfect hat-trick, Mbappe is now the youngest player to achieve that feat in the Champions League, doing so at the age of 20 years and 302 days. He is also the only player to do so as a substitute. Is there anything he can’t do?
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