KYLIAN MBAPPE SCORED a brace of goals to help Paris Saint-Germain consolidate their place atop the Ligue 1 table with a 3-0 win over Ajaccio on Friday.
Mbappe opened the scoring against a side sitting 18th in the table in the 24th minute thanks to a clinical counter-attack on the back of an inch-perfect, long pass from Lionel Messi.
The Argentinian scored one of his own in the 79th minute, before Mbappe nabbed his second just minutes later to go top of this season’s top scorers with 10 goals.
Everything about this is filthy! 🥵
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Mbappé 🤝 Messi
Playground football! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qXlDQ60lmL
Elsewhere, Juventus comfortably beat Empoli 4-0 in Friday’s Serie A match ahead of their Champions League clash at Benfica which could seal their elimination from Europe’s top club competition.
Goals in each half from Moise Kean and Weston McKennie and a late Adrien Rabiot brace gave struggling Juve their second straight win in Italy’s top flight, the first time this league season that they have managed to win two matches in a row.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side moved up to seventh, seven points behind Serie A leaders Napoli and three away from Roma who sit in fourth and host the pacesetters at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night.
Kean’s eighth-minute opener, tapped in from Filip Kostic’s cross, was his first league goal of the season and rewarded Allegri’s decision to start the Italy international ahead of in-form forward Arkadiusz Milik.
The 22-year-old thought he had another shortly after McKennie headed in Juve’s second in the 56th minute, a header of his own from another Kostic ruled out for offside.
It was France international Rabiot who rounded off the scoring, first forcing another header just across the line from Juan Cuadrado’s corner with eight minutes remaining before tapping home the fourth in stoppage time.
Empoli sit 11th on 11 points after their fourth defeat of the season in which the closest they came to scoring was when Mattia Destro wasted a great chance to equalise one-on-one with Wojciech Szczesny in the 33rd minute.
Friday’s match served as a warm up to Juve’s trip Lisbon to take on Benfica with elimination from the Champions League staring them in the face.
Juve are five points behind both their hosts on Tuesday and Group H leaders Paris Saint-Germain and have to win their final two matches to have any chance of making it through to the last 16.
In England’s League One, there was no shortage of Irish involvement as Ipswich Town beat Derby County 1-0.
Richard Keogh was a late, late substitute for the winners, for whom Wes Burns scored the decisive goal in the 67th minute. Jason Knight was ruled out through injury just before kick-off, but Eiran Cashin, Conor Hourihane and David McGoldrick — the latter two off the bench — all featured for Derby County.
And in the Frauen-Bundesliga, Amber Barrett’s Potsdam Turbine side fell to a 2-0 defeat to Meppen. A second-half double from Lisa Josten sealed the deal, with Ireland’s World Cup qualifying goal-scoring hero Barrett again lining out at right-back for her new club.
- Updated 00.00 to clarify the League One status of Ipswich Town and Derby County.
