Rogers Media
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AP) — Kylian Mbappe led Paris Saint-Germain back to the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad that kept the French club’s hopes of winning the European name alive in its final. season with the French striker.
PSG completed a 4-1 aggregate, with Mbappe also scoring one of the goals in a 2-0 first-leg win in Paris three weeks ago. Mbappe has already told PSG that he will remain at the club after this season.
Despite spending a lot of time trying to win the Champions League for the first time, PSG had been knocked out of the round of 16 five times in the past seven seasons, the last two of which came together. He reached the semi-finals in 2021 and is a finalist in 2020.
“We knew right away that we couldn’t sleep,” Mbappe said. “If they had opened the scoring, they would have continued their players’ play. We had to sprint with their hopes from the start. That’s what we did and we’re very pleased to be back in the quarter-finals.
Mbappe made the difference on Tuesday, opening the scoring with a fine goal in the 15th minute after some clever plays inside the box to cut near the touchline and unleash a fine right-footed shot into the far corner. The shot shattered the net near the far post, prompting a brief stoppage of play to fix it.
Mbappe’s second goal came in the 56th minute with a run that went just wide of the halfway line. He ran into the open box to receive a long pass from Lee Kang-in and found the net from inside the box.
At 25 years and 76 days, Mbappé is the second-youngest player to score forty-five goals in the Champions League, from the organizational level to the final. Lionel Messi achieved that mark at 24 years and 257 days. Mbappe has 46 goals.
Mbappé had scored in his last two games for PSG, but he had scored 8 goals in his last 8 games for the club. He had been substituted in the last two games played until the final whistle on Tuesday.
PSG had won 10 of their last 13 games in all competitions, but were coming off back-to-back draws against Rennes and Monaco in the French league.
Mikel Merino scored Sociedad’s goal in the 89th minute to give the home crowd an explanation for why to celebrate.
“We wanted to qualify, but we also wanted to win,” Mbappe said. “We had a transparent game plan and we were going to score early. We didn’t try too hard, just a little bit at the end. “
In Wednesday’s round of 16 match, Bayern Munich completed a 3-1 aggregate win after beating Lazio 3-0 at home.
For the first time, Sociedad were looking to get past the knockout stages of the Champions League. The Basque club had not participated in Europe’s biggest club tournament since 2013-14. His European crusade came here in 1982-83, when he reached the semi-finals of the European Cup.
Society had a strong season and won their Champions League organization for the first time, but has recently gone through a crisis. They have lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and have won just one in their last nine games.
“All opponents are tough in the Champions League, but unfortunately we’re up against the toughest one we can face,” Merino said. “We needed a better game to advance, but they are too smart and they have a player like Mbappe, who is almost certain to score with his transitions. They were bigger than us.
The Spanish club had dominated PSG for most of the first leg before conceding two goals in the second half.
Sociedad had a goal disallowed for offside by Ander Barrenetxea in the 63rd minute.