the times | Wednesday February 16 2022 2GM 65
Sport
Paris Saint-Germain (4-3-3): G Donnarumma 7 —
A Hakimi 8, Marquinhos 8, P Kimpembe 7, N
Mendes 8 — D Pereira 8 (I Gueye 87), L Paredes 7,
M Verratti 7 — A Di María 7 (Neymar 73, 7), L
Messi 7, K Mbappé 9. Booked Verratti, Danilo,
Kimpembe, Paredes.
Real Madrid (4-3-3): T Courtois 8 — D Carvajal 5
(L Vázquez 72, 6), E Militão 7, D Alaba 7, F Mendy
6 — L Modric 5 (F Valverde 82), Casemiro 5, T
Kroos 5 — M Asensio 5 (Rodrygo 72, 6), K
Benzema 5 (G Bale 87), Vinícius 5 (E Hazard 82).
Booked Casemiro, Militão, Mendy.ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGESinset, scored two of those, Mahrez started it off and Sterling then got the fifth
James Gheerbrant ParisMagical Mbappé passes
Real audition in style
PSG
Mbappé 90+4Real Madrid
1
0
Round of 16 fixtures
All 8pm kick-off
Today Red Bull Salzburg v Bayern
Munich; Inter Milan v Liverpool.
Tuesday, Feb 22 Chelsea v Lille;
Villarreal v Juventus.
Wednesday, Feb 23 Atletico Madrid v
Manchester United; Benfica v Ajax.
Tuesday, Mar 8 Bayern Munich v Red
Bull Salzburg; Liverpool v Inter Milan.
Wednesday, Mar 9 Manchester City v
Sporting Lisbon; Real Madrid v Paris
Saint-Germain.
Tuesday, Mar 15 Ajax v Benfica;
Manchester United v Atletico Madrid.
Wednesday, Mar 16 Juventus v
Villarreal; Lille v Chelsea.The match settled back into a similar
pattern after the break, PSG compress-
ing the play into the attacking half, Real
sitting back and hoping for a transition
opportunity. When PSG were in
possession, Danilo would often drop
back, making a back three, with Hakimi
pushing high and wide on the right to
pin back Mendy.
PSG were thrumming with confi-
dence. They strung together a brilliant
move, a knitted sequence of perfectly
timed passes in tight spaces, which
ended with a sharp Mbappé shot that
Courtois saved well low down.
Real just could not get anything
going. When Hakimi lost the ball, a
counter was on, but Kroos played a
clunky pass and Marquinhos swept up.
From the very next phase, Mbappé
made another of those menacing diag-
onal dribbles, body tilted forward. Car-
vajal dived in clumsily and offered no
complaint when the referee pointed to
the spot. It seemed PSG would finally
have the lead their dominance merited,
but not for the first time, Messi was
mortalised by the penalty spot and
Courtois saved his kick low to his left.
Messi was chasing atonement, trying
a silly shot from distance. Neymar
replaced Di María and Mbappé moved
to the right. PSG kept finding ways not
to score. Messi’s cross curled past
Mbappé’s dangling leg. From the ensu-
ing corner, Mbappé was found on the
left of goal, at an acute angle, and he
stabbed a curling shot which grazed the
outside of the far post.
As the match entered its dying sec-
onds, PSG had had 21 shots without
scoring. In their efforts to bury their op-
ponents, they had dug a hole for them-
selves. The night could have ended in
failure. Instead it ended with Mbappé,
the ball at his feet, everyone watching
him, and no one able to hold him.
“When I have the advantage of get-
ting into the box very early,” he said,
“I’m the master of my own destiny.”Mbappé, who is heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid in the summer, shoots through Courtois’ legs in the last minuteCity hunger
MICHAEL ZEMANEK/SHUTTERSTOCK; GETTY IMAGESGoal machines
City's emphatic win means they are two goals from bringing up their century
for the season in all competitions... and it's only February. This graphic shows
the number of goals they have scored in each game.
Failed to score1 goal2 goals3 goals4 goals5 goals6 goals7 goals6 7 8 2 6 4 3 1Season total98 goals
For an hour, this match felt like a daz-
zling vindication of the Paris Saint-Ger-
main project. Then it felt like something
else: a monument to absurd profligacy, a
fitting metaphor for this billion-dollar
team. And then, finally, it crystallised
around one player, one moment: a
single, luminous point of pure sporting
genius and irresistible narrative.
Every eye was trained on Kylian
Mbappé here, and not a finger laid on
him. In a constellation of stars, he was
the focal point: the local hero of PSG,
who everyone thinks is all but certain to
join Real Madrid this summer. When
the names of the home team were read
out before kick-off, they were all lustily
booed by the Real fans, except for
Mbappé, who received an ovation.
Mbappé was untouchable. He shot a
jolt of life through this Frankenstein’s
monster of a PSG team, inspiring their
best performance under Mauricio Po-
chettino, and then just when it looked
like Real had held out, he shot a bolt of
pain through the heart of his suitor.
In the 94th minute, Mbappé received
a back-heel from Neymar on the left
touchline. There were three defenders
between him and the goal. He swayed
and shifted, sizing up the moment, and
then, in a blur, slipped past Eder
Militão and Lucas Vázquez. Casemiro
closed too late, and Mbappé slid the
ball past Thibaut Courtois.
“I’ve not decided my future,”
he said at full-time. “I’m a
PSG player, I’m still very
happy. I give my all and
I show that through
my actions.”
At the start of
the match, it had
taken Mbappé 40
seconds to do
something incredi-
ble, receiving the ball
on the half-turn deep
in his own half, sweep-ing it into his path as he spun, then ca-
ressing a beautiful ball to Angel Di Ma-
ría, the sort of pass which unfurls the
possibility of a counterattack all by it-
self; an early whoosh of genius which
ignites and uplifts a match like turning
on the jet burner in a hot-air balloon.
PSG were in all-out-attack mode in
the first 20 minutes: perhaps a
consequence of the abolition of the
away goals rule, which has reduced the
jeopardy for gung-ho home teams.
Soon Mbappé was at it again. He left
Dani Carvajal in the dust and picked
out Di María, eight yards out, who
shinned the ball over the bar.
Lionel Messi, in the false
nine position, was dropping
deep and drifting into the
right half-space, between
David Alaba, Ferland Mendy
and Toni Kroos. He played a
little chipped ball over the top,
as casually as a man flipping a
coin into a busker’s cap, and
Mbappé breezed through
Carvajal again. Courtois
blocked the shot with his legs.
Carvajal endured a harrow-
ing evening. Mbappé brusque-
ly shrugged him off the ball in
the PSG box and broke upfield.
The right back picked up a yel-
low for a sliding challenge on
Mendes, leaving him walking
on broken glass. At half-time,
PSG had had 68 per cent pos-
session and outshot Real by six
attempts to one, a skimming
Casemiro header the final act.Messi, right, had a penalty
saved low to Courtois’ left
in the second halfGuardiola still not satisfied
underside of the bar, was particularly
pleasing for his manager.
“It was one of the best goals that I
ever saw,” Guardiola said. “Bernardo is
a fantastic player. He doesn’t just play
football, he understands the game. He’s
unique in many ways. His mum and dad
have to be so proud. He is a lovely
person and he can play six roles.
“He can run 13km, with the ball he’s
more than exceptional, but I tell him he
has to score more goals. It was a special
night for him because he’s in his home
town, and was a Benfica player and is a
Benfica supporter.”
Rúben Amorim, the Sporting man-
ager, was shell-shocked after watching
his team lose comprehensively.
“They [City] are probably the best
team in the world,” he said. “We started
well but then we conceded. We tried but
every time they got to our box they
killed us. After the third goal it became
suffering, it was no longer football.
“They have more years and a better
coach and they have played more
minutes than us. We couldn’t find a
solution. We were powerless and I have
to apologise to my players.”Pep Guardiola described Manchester
City’s 5-0 hammering of Sporting
Lisbon as a “dream result” but then
insisted that his squad could perform
much better.
Guardiola said that he was delighted
with the result, which almost guaran-
tees his team a spot in the quarter-finals
of the Champions League, but criticised
them for losing possession on several
occasions in the second half.
“We have a duty as a manager and
team to analyse,” Guardiola, the City
manager, said. “The result is a perfect
result, but in terms of the performance,
we can do better.
“We were so clinical but we have to
take care of the ball better. One of the
first principles in football is you should
pass the ball to someone who wears the
same shirt as you. Some players under-
perform. We lost so many easy balls.”
Guardiola had no harsh words to say
about Bernardo Silva, who won the
man-of-the-match award after scoring
twice. The Portuguese’s first strike, a
crisp half-volley that went in off the
Paul Hirst Lisbon