Mbappe hat-trick as PSG thump Barcelona  

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(BBC SPORTS) Kylian Mbappe scored a stunning hat-trick as Paris St-Germain ripped Barcelona apart in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at the Nou Camp. 

The night did not start well for last year’s runners-up when they fell behind to Lionel Messi’s 27th-minute penalty. Messi, regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, was then upstaged on his own turf by France World Cup winner Mbappe as PSG ruthlessly exposed the hosts. Mbappe danced past Clement Lenglet and smashed in the equaliser before stroking home from 10 yards to turn the game around. On-loan Everton striker Moise Kean continued his resurgence by heading in unchallenged at the far post to put the Ligue 1 champions in control of the tie.

With Barca looking to pull a goal back, they were caught on the counter-attack and Mbappe curled in the goal of the night with his third. The second leg takes place on 20 March in Paris, by which time PSG hope to have Neymar back from a thigh injury to face his former side.

Magnificent Mbappe steals the show

Champions League meetings between European heavyweights can often be tense, nervy encounters but this was a thrilling end-to-end clash which will live long in the memory as Mbappe took home the match ball.

The 22-year-old fell agonisingly short last season when they were beaten in the final by Bayern Munich, and the Ligue 1 champions will take some stopping again under Mauricio Pochettino.

Sacked by Tottenham in November 2019, just five months after reaching the final of this competition, Pochettino looks to be moulding a side that will be considered strong contenders led by the brilliant Mbappe.

He had netted just one goal in nine knockout games for PSG before this game, but reversed that statistic in cold-blooded fashion.

The former Monaco forward became only the third player, after Faustino Asprilla and Andrei Shevchenko, to score a Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona.

He took his first majestically, trapping Marco Verratti’s delightful flick before ghosting past compatriot Lenglet and firing an unstoppable finish past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

The second was a poacher’s finish from 10 yards after the Barca goalkeeper parried the ball back into the danger area but he saved his best until last, curling in a first-time finish to stun the home side.

They should have had more but for Ter Stegen, who made superb saves to deny Layvin Kurzawa and Kean twice, but the Italian striker did find the net with a header on 70 minutes.

Though in command, PSG will know the tie is not over having been on the wrong end of a Barcelona comeback when the sides met at this stage in 2016-17, Luis Enrique’s men turning around a 4-0 deficit to win the return leg 6-1 with three late goals.

Dembele’s miss proves pivotal

Riddled with debt and uncertainty surrounding the future of star man Messi, as well as presidential elections coming up next month, Barcelona were well beaten by their more sprightly and effervescent opponents.

Messi gave them the perfect start by converting a penalty after Frenkie de Jong was tripped in the box but it was all downhill thereafter.

They will look to a bad miss from Ousmane Dembele at 1-0, striking a weak effort straight at Keylor Navas from 10 yards out, as the turning point in the game.

Had that gone in it may well have been a tighter scoreline, and with Antoine Griezmann also missing from close range and shooting wide from the edge of the box, Ronald Koeman’s men were heavily punished at the other end.

PSG continue scoring run on the road – the stats

• In what is their 151st home match in the European Cup/Champions League, Barcelona have lost consecutive matches for the very first time.
• Barcelona have played 278 home matches in all European competitions and have lost by a 3+ goal margin only six times – the past two occasions have come in successive games at the Nou Camp (3-0 v Juventus, 4-1 v PSG).
• Paris St-Germain became just the second French side to beat Barcelona at home after Metz also won 4-1 in the 1984-85 Cup Winners’ Cup.
• PSG have scored in each of their past 20 away matches in the Champions League, a run dating back to September 2016. In the competition’s history, only Real Madrid have had a longer run – 22 games from 2010-2014.
• Of players with 20 or more goals in the Champions League, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe has netted the highest proportion in away matches (71% – 17/24).
• Lionel Messi’s opener was his 20th goal of the season for Barcelona in all competitions; it’s the 13th consecutive campaign he’s scored 20+ goals for the club.
• Messi has scored in the Champions League in each calendar year since 2005. This run of at least one goal in 17 consecutive years is the joint-longest run in the competition’s history alongside Raul (1995-2011).
• Pic save as paris
•  Kylian Mbappe became only the third player to score a Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona

Axar Patel five-for seals crushing India win to level series

India 329 (Rohit 161, Rahane 67, Pant 58*, Moeen 4-128) and 286 (Ashwin 106, Kohli 62, Moeen 4-98, Leach 4-100) beat England 134 (Foakes 42*, Ashwin 5-43) and 164 (Moeen 43, Axar 5-60) by 317 runs

(CRICINFO) India cruised to victory in a little over a session on the fourth day at Chepauk, Axar Patel collecting a five-wicket haul on debut as England went down by a crushing margin of 317 runs – emphatic retribution after the tourists had gone 1-0 up on this ground less than a week earlier.

Having seen his side dominate the match from toss to finishing tape, Virat Kohli’s satisfaction was as palpable at his disgruntlement after the first Test. On a classically subcontinental surface, England twice could barely match the individual contribution of India’s first-innings centurion, Rohit Sharma, and were left with precious few scraps with which to slink off to Ahmedabad ahead of the day-night encounter, their six-match winning run in away Tests at a halt.

The only slight regret for another enthusiastic crowd came in the absence of another R Ashwin landmark for them to acknowledge – he finished with 8 for 96, narrowly short of becoming only the fourth man to score a century and take ten-for in a Test.

England’s task on their return to the ground was a near-futile one, but there was the potential to spend time in the middle against India’s spinners and salt away knowledge for the battles ahead. As it was, only Joe Root spent any significant amount of time at the crease – even 33 from 92 balls was modest by his recent standards – and barely a shot was played in anger until Moeen Ali decided to go down swinging with five towering sixes before being last man out, stumped off Kuldeep Yadav.

Fittingly for a Test that saw some grumbling about the pitch but was more memorable for the displays of high-class wicketkeeping, the game ended with the ball in the hands of Rishabh Pant. This was only the sixth time in Tests that a match had featured five or more stumpings – and India’s march to victory on the fourth morning began with another, as Dan Lawrence charged at Ashwin only to be nutmegged, leaving Pant to seal his fate after collecting brilliantly down the leg side.

That dismissal brought out Ben Stokes, searching for pointers in his ongoing duel with India’s offspinner. Despite digging in as the ball ripped and spun – one delivery from over the wicket nearly took him on the chin before Pant collected it above his head – Stokes was rendered near-strokeless, facing 38 balls from Ashwin of which 36 were dots, the last also bringing his wicket as an inside edge ricocheted off pad to slip.

Patel picked up his third, following the dismissals of Dom Sibley and Jack Leach on the third evening, when Ollie Pope shovelled a slog-sweep straight to deep midwicket, and although Mohammed Siraj dropped Root with the lunch break approaching, Kuldeep Yadav was finally able to enjoy the feeling of taking a Test wicket, more than two years after his previous appearance, when Ben Foakes swept without conviction and was taken on the edge of the square.

India rounded the rest up without much delay, as Root received a near-unplayable ball, which took the top glove as he pressed forward and flew to slip, and Olly Stone became another victim of the sweep to complete Patel’s five-for. Moeen had some fun with 43 off 18 balls as England at least managed to surpass their first-innings total – but nothing could take the shine off as India rewarded the returning Chepauk crowd with a thumping win, and the afternoon free.

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