[ad_1]
SAN SEBASTIÁN, Spain (AP) — Kylian Mbappé led Paris Saint-Germain to the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday, scoring both goals in a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad that kept the club’s hopes alive French to win the European title in his last season with the French striker.
PSG advanced 4-1 on aggregate, with Mbappé also scoring one of the goals in the 2-0 victory in the first leg in Paris three weeks ago. Mbappé has already told PSG that he will not remain at the club after this season.
Despite the enormous expenditure to try to win the Champions League for the first time, PSG had been eliminated from the round of 16 five times in the last seven seasons, including the last two. They reached the semi-finals in 2021 and were runners-up in 2020.
“We knew immediately that we couldn’t sleep,” Mbappé said. “If they had opened the scoring, they would have gone ahead with the support of their fans. We had to extinguish their hopes from the beginning. “That’s what we did and we are very happy to be in the quarterfinals again.”
Mbappé made the difference again on Tuesday, opening the scoring with a beautiful goal in the 15th minute after a couple of deft moves inside the box to cut in from near the touchline and fire a firm right-footed shot into the far corner. . The shot broke the net at the far post, prompting a brief stoppage of play to fix it.
Mbappé’s second goal came in the 56th with a run that started near the midfield line. He accelerated into the open space to receive a long pass from Lee Kang-in and calmly found the net from inside the area.
At 25 years and 76 days, Mbappé became the second youngest player to reach 45 goals in the Champions League, from the group stage to the final. Lionel Messi reached that mark at 24 years and 257 days. Mbappé stands at 46 goals.
Mbappé had not scored in his last two games for PSG, but scored eight goals in his last eight games for the club. He had been substituted in the last two games, but he played until the final whistle on Tuesday.
PSG had won 10 of its last 13 games in all competitions, but was coming off consecutive draws against Rennes and Monaco in the French league.
Mikel Merino scored Sociedad’s only goal in the 89th minute to give the home crowd some reason to celebrate.
“We wanted to qualify, but we also wanted to win,” Mbappé said. “We had a clear game plan and managed to score early. We didn’t suffer too much pressure, just a little at the end.”
In Wednesday’s other round of 16 match, Bayern Munich advanced 3-1 on aggregate after defeating Lazio 3-0 at home.
Sociedad was trying to get past the round of 16 of the Champions League for the first time. The Basque club had not played in Europe’s top club tournament since the 2013-14 season. Their best European campaign was 1982-83, when they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup.
Sociedad started the season strong and won their Champions League group for the first time, but have been going through a crisis recently. He has lost six times in his last seven matches in all competitions and has won just once in his last nine matches.
“All opponents are difficult in the Champions League, but unfortunately we faced probably the toughest one we could face,” Merino said. “We needed a perfect match to advance, but they are too good and have a player like Mbappé, who is almost certain to score with his transitions. “They were better than us.”
The Spanish club had outscored PSG for most of the first leg before conceding two goals in the second half.
Sociedad had a goal by Ander Barrenetxea disallowed for offside in the 63rd minute.
___
AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
[ad_2]
Source link