Ligue 1 leaders Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe played a starring role as Paris Saint-Germain cruised to a 3-0 win over Ajaccio on Friday night.
Ligue 1
Result: Ajaccio 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain
Date: 21 October 2022
Venue: Stade François Coty
Neymar missed out due to suspension as Carlos Soler joined Messi and Mbappe in the attack, while Fabian Ruiz and Renato Sanches were also included in midfield.
Messi went close to adding another free-kick to his impressive tally on 13 minutes, but Ajaccio goalkeeper Benjamin Leroy produced a superb save to deny the Argentine.
The Argentine superstar would turn provider ten minutes later after threading a pass to release Mbappe, who calmly slotted past Leroy for his eighth league of goal of the season.
While Ajacio struggled to carve out chances, PSG should have doubled the lead eight minutes before the halftime break when Achraf Hakimi got to the byline and picked out Mbappe, who blazed over the crossbar from close range.
Christophe Galtier's charges carried the dominance into the second half, with Sanches blasting over on 51 minutes before Mbappe squandered another opening six minutes later.
Ajaccio, meanwhile responded with a double change on the hour mark as Riad Nouri and Romain Hamouma replaced Cyrille Bayala and Bevic Moussiti-Oko.
However, it was PSG who got the next goal as Mbappe turned provider with some good skill to beat the defence and play in Messi, who converted from close range in the 78th minute.
Messi returned the favour two minutes later as he picked out Mbappe once again, with the Frenchman finding the bottom corner to complete his brace.
That proved to be Mbappe's final involvement as he made way for Hugo Ekitike while 16-year-old Warren Zaïre-Emery replaced Ruiz for the final seven minutes as the visitors saw out the closing stages with relative ease.
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