Ligue 1
Result: Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 Montpellier
Date: 22 January 2021
Venue: Parc des Princes
Paris Saint-Germain opened a three-point lead at the top of the Ligue 1 table after thrashing ten-man Montpellier 4-0 on Friday night.
Mauro Icardi was preferred over Moise Kean to lead the line for PSG, with Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria behind him while Bafana Bafana midfielder Keagan Dolly started from the bench for Montpellier.
Montpellier were reduced to ten men in the 19th minute after goalkeeper Jonas Omlin, who was initially given a yellow card, was red-carded following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review after denying Mbappe a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Mauricio Pochettino's charges eventually broke the deadlock with 11 minutes left of the first stanza after Mbappe raced clear on goal inside the box from Di Maria's pass and chipped a lovely strike over the on-rushing substitute goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud.
Montpellier were dropping deep in the early stages of the second stanza but that did not help matters, as Neymar doubled the lead for the Parisians on the hour-mark with a close range finish after a square pass by Mbappe.
Icardi quickly added a third goal for Pochettino's men a minute later with a smashing strike past Bertaud a deflection fell on his path inside the box.
Montpellier were capitulating, as Mbappe made it 4-0 soon after with a simple tap-in to complete his brace after a square pass by Icardi.
Layvin Kurzawa came very close to getting his name on the score-sheet minute with an acrobatic overhead kick inside the box that came off the crossbar.
Mbappe was denied a hat-trick in the last two minutes after skipping past two defenders inside the box before seeing his effort turned away by Bertaud, but the four goals were enough to send PSG top.
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