PSG hammer Galatasaray
Neymar marked his first start in a Champions League game in a year by scoring one goal and setting up two more as Paris Saint-Germain cruised to a 5-0 win over Galatasaray on Wednesday.
Mauro Icardi and Pablo Sarabia netted in the first half at the Parc des Princes, with the world’s most expensive player getting his team’s third within two minutes of the restart.
Kylian Mbappe scored the fourth goal and substitute Edinson Cavani added a late penalty as PSG -- who had already qualified for the last 16 as group winners - made it 16 points out of a possible 18 in Group A to finish five points ahead of Real Madrid.
Despite PSG already being comfortably through and France being in the grip of a transport strike that has almost completely shut down the Paris metro system, the Parc des Princes was still largely full for this game.
That included a sizeable travelling support, and there were incidents outside the stadium ahead of the match between rival fan groups, with police responding by firing tear gas before calm returned.
The game itself carried the air of a training exercise for the home side, with PSG coach Thomas Tuchel resting stars such as Angel Di Maria, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti and goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Sergio Rico made just his second appearance in goal since signing on loan from Sevilla at the start of the season, while Argentine international Leandro Paredes was handed a rare start in midfield.
Alongside him was the 17-year-old Tanguy Kouassi, who made his senior debut in a Ligue 1 game at Montpellier last weekend and has still not signed full professional terms.
The two biggest stars were on the pitch, however, and both Neymar and Mbappe proved too hot for the Turkish champions to handle.
Comments