Kylian Mbappé makes his mark against stripped-down RC Lens

Paris Saint-Germain remains comfortably at the top of the rankings in Ligue 1. Luis Enrique's men did not have to go too deep when visiting RC Lens. Kylian Mbappé once again took PSG by the hand by providing an assist to Bradley Barcola in the first half and ending the match just before the end: 0-2. Leader PSG has an eight lead over OGC Nice; Lens is eighth.

Lens has no fewer than four players in its ranks who have been called up for the Africa Cup: Salis Abdul Samed (Ghana), Morgan Guilavogui (Guinea), Massadio Haidara (Mali) and Nampalys Mendy. PSG will miss Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) due to the tournament, while Kang-In Lee (South Korea) is at the Asia Cup.

PSG gave away a penalty in the sixth minute. Danilo Pereira tried to prevent Elye Wahi from breaking into the penalty area with a tackle, but instead hit the striker's legs.

Przemyslaw Frankowski shot the penalty straight down the middle, which Gianluigi Donnarumma was already counting on. The Italian goalkeeper quickly put two knees in the grass and stopped the penalty.

After half an hour of play, PSG took the lead. Kylian Mbappé was used by his team as a point of contact in the axis of the field. The star player saw how Barcola went deep on the left flank and sent a tailor-made through ball. Barcola then coolly tapped the ball around goalkeeper Brice Samba: 0-1.

In injury time of the first half, Lens defender Jonathan Gradit pulled the emergency brake on Barcola, who would otherwise have entered the sixteen in complete freedom with the ball at his feet. Initially Gradit was given yellow, but after viewing the images the color of the card was changed to red.

PSG was significantly stronger than Lens in the second half, strengthened by the numerical surplus. Yet the first chance after the break was for the home team. Donnarumma was able to tap away a rebound from Neil El Aynaoui.

After that, Lens had to limit himself almost exclusively to defense. Mbappé went looking for his goal, but came up against Samba with a hard shot in the 84th minute. The superstar managed to score a minute before the end.

Ousmane Dembélé sent a through ball from the right at the right time to the middle, where Mbappé had run away from the defense. With just one touch, the attacker finished in the far corner: 0-2. After eighteen rounds, Mbappé has scored nineteen goals, putting him far at the top of the top scorers list.

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