Leo Messiwith a brace and, above all, a spectacular goal with his back to goal, and Neymar, with a goal and three assists, were the absolute stars of Paris Saint-Germain in the 5-0 win at Clermont, this Saturday at the first day of the French Ligue 1.
In the absence of Kylian Mbappé due to injury, the two South American stars shone brightly.
Messi sealed the win with a goal to remember, controlling a long pass from his Argentine compatriot Leandro Paredes with his chest and finishing off with his back to the goal, to put the final 5-0 score in the 86th minute.
CLOSE EVERYTHING!! MESSI SCORED AN INFERNAL GOAL FOR CHILENA!!
Look at her #Flirt1 by #ESPNenStarPlus pic.twitter.com/j22dN7j4Ma
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) August 6, 2022
Shortly before, in the 80th minute, Messi had scored his first goal of the match and of this Ligue 1 by pushing at will a pass of death offered almost as a gift by Neymar.
It was the third assist in the game for the Brazilian, who signed his club’s first goal in this league just in the 9th minute, finishing off after Messi touched lightly on Pablo Sarabia’s cross.
Neymar then gave the decisive pass so that his Moroccan teammate Achraf Hakimi (26) beat the local goalkeeper, with a powerful shot in the area directly to the top corner, and then by hanging a ball that Sergio Ramos narrowly missed but the also Brazilian Marquinhos (38) headed straight into the goalkeeper Mory Diaw’s net.
With a three-goal lead at the break, the second half was very quiet for PSG, who sealed the win with Messi’s brace in the final minutes, which put a smile on the Argentine’s face, at the start of his second season in the French team.
“When Messi smiles, the team smiles too,” celebrated PSG’s new coach, Christophe Galtier.
“Leo has been playing at the highest level for seventeen years. He had a difficult last season, in which he had to acclimatise, a change of life, but in the previous years he was at least thirty goals per season. He has made a complete preparation, he already knows the club and his teammates, there is no reason for Leo not to have a great season”, he confided.
Paris Saint-Germain, champions of Ligue 1 last season, thus become leaders of the standings from the start due to a better goal difference.
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