Paris St Germain captain Marquinhos scored at both ends against Racing Strasbourg before a last-gasp Kylian Mbappe penalty secured the Ligue 1 leaders a 2-1 victory on Wednesday even though they were reduced to 10 men midway through the second half after Neymar was sent off.
Marquinhos opened the scoring by breaking free from his marker and headed in Neymar’s cross after 14 minutes.
The Brazilian defender, however, deflected Adrien Thomasson’s cross into his own net in the 51st minute to leave the scores level.
Neymar received his marching orders in the 62nd minute at Parc des Princes after picking up two bookings in two minutes, the first for a foul and then a second for diving a minute later.
Ten days after Mbappe’s hopes of becoming a two-time World Cup winner were dashed after 2018 champions France were beaten by Argentina in the Qatar final, the 24-year-old was on target again as he converted a penalty six minutes into stoppage time after being pulled inside the box.
PSG top the standings with 44 points, eight ahead of RC Lens, who have a game in hand. but with one more game played. Strasbourg are in 19th place.
MONACO’S NEW TALENT
After launching the career of Mbappe, French club Monaco may have found another gem in Eliesse Ben Seghir. The 17-year-old midfielder came off the bench to score twice — including an Mbappe-style winner — in his league debut to help Monaco win 3-2 at Auxerre.
Ben Seghir’s goals both came from the left side — which is where Mbappe was so devastating when he made his debut for Monaco in 2015 as a 16-year-old. Mbappe helped the Principality club win the title in 2017, before joining PSG and winning the World Cup with France in 2018.
Ben Seghir replaced striker Wissam Ben Yedder at the start of the second half, with the score 1-1, and made it 2-1 in the 58th minute from Russia midfielder Aleksandr Golovin’s pass.
He then struck a brilliant winner in the 85th. Cutting inside from the left, Ben Seghir bamboozled a defender with a stepover and then feigned to shoot several times as he advanced before curling the ball into the right corner — which is one of Mbappe’s signature moves.
After the final whistle, Ben Seghir’s celebrated with Monaco’s 700 away fans by shouting into a megaphone. The win moved Monaco up to fifth place.
OTHER MATCHES
Sixth-place Lille won 2-0 at Clermont with second-half goals from midfielder Angel Gomes and striker Mohamed Bayo. Former Arsenal forward Alexandre Lacazette scored to take his tally to 10 goals as eighth-place Lyon won 4-2 at Brest.
Corsican club Angers moved away from the relegation zone with a 1-0 home win against last-place Angers and Troyes drew 0-0 with lowly Nantes.
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Lens travels to mid-table Nice, while third-place Rennes visits Reims and fourth-place Marseille takes on Toulouse.
Agencies
