Paris, November 12, 2023, The Europe Today: Kylian Mbappe grabbed a hat-trick to send Paris St Germain to the top of Ligue 1 at fourth-placed Reims on Saturday, one point clear of Nice who played out a goalless draw against Montpellier a day earlier.
Mbappe opened the scoring three minutes in, after receiving a cross unmarked at the back post to slot a low volley into the bottom corner of the net. Reims thought they had equalized minutes later when Junya Ito converted a cross, but the offside flag was up.
He doubled his side’s advantage in the 59th minute, eluding his marker to tap in a low cross at the far post, and rounded off a 3-0 victory eight minutes later when he notched his third with a first-time shot from inside the area.
“Kylian was the best in terms of goals. But I think there’s still room for improvement, and we can still ask a lot more of our best players,” said PSG manager Luis Enrique.
Reims enjoyed good spells of possession and made chances but were unable to beat PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who thwarted Amir Richardson from close range and saved Joseph Okumu’s header shortly after the break.
“Gigio (Donnarumma) saved us several times, but I think we deserved to win. We suffered, but we were alert and we defended well when we needed to,” said Enrique.
Elsewhere in Europe, Tottenham missed the chance to return to the top of the English Premier League after a dramatic end to their game away to Wolverhampton Wanderers condemned them to their second defeat in a week.
Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane scored a double in their 4-2 victory over Heidenheim to lift them provisionally into the top spot in Bundesliga while extending his own record-breaking scoring run in Germany.
