Neymar continued his fine start to the season with a brace in Paris Saint-Germain's 5-2 thrashing of Montpellier on Saturday night.
Result: Paris Saint-Germain 5-2 Montpellier
Date: 13 August 2022
Venue: Parc des Princes
Kylian Mbappe made his first start of the season for the champions in place of Pablo Sarabia, while the visitors were without Stephy Mavididi.
The hosts were lively in the early stages as Messi looked to play in Neymar after 17 minutes, but the latter's touch let him down as goalkeeper Jonas Omlin came to collect.
Five minutes later, PSG were awarded a penalty after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) spotted a handball on Jordan Ferri. Mbappe stepped up but saw his spot-kick saved by Omlin.
Christophe Galtier 's charges continued to dominate and eventually got the opening goal in the 39th minute when Falaye Sacko deflected Mbappe's cross into his own net.
PSG were awarded a second penalty four minutes later for another handball. Neymar took responsibility this time and made no mistake to double his side's lead before the break.
The hosts carried that dominance into the second half and grabbed a third goal six minutes in, with Neymar completing his brace with a diving header from Achraf Hakimi's deflected cross.
There would be no clean sheet for the champions as Montpellier managed to pull a goal back just before the hour mark when Whabi Khazri slotted home from close range after Gianluigi Donnarumma failed to hold his initial effort.
However, PSG restored their three-goal advantage in the 69th minute as Mbappe finally got his goal with a close-range finish into the far corner.
Neymar looked to have completed his hat-trick with five minutes left on the clock after some good work by Messi, but the goal was ruled out by the referee.
PSG did go on to get a fifth goal in the 87th minute as new signing Renato Sances opened his account for the club just a minute after coming on as Marco Verratti's replacement.
Enzo Tchato pulled another goal back for Montpellier in second-half stoppage time, but it was nothing more than a consolation as the champions maintain their winning start to the campaign.
