KYLIAN MBAPPE SET Paris Saint-Germain on the way to a 2-0 win over troubled Marseille, keeping the reigning champions within three points of Ligue 1 leaders Lille who earlier recorded their sixth consecutive victory.
Mbappe burst through at incredible pace to give PSG the lead on the counter-attack in the ninth minute at the Stade Velodrome, with Mauro Icardi adding a second for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
The victory was achieved despite Neymar — who celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday — only appearing as a second-half substitute having missed training with a stomach bug.
PSG stay third in the Ligue 1 table, a point behind Lyon and three adrift of Lille who won 2-0 at Nantes earlier.
Marseille finished with 10 men after Dimitri Payet’s late sending-off, and are down in ninth having won just one of their last 11 games.
‘Le Classique’ is the biggest fixture in French football, and the build-up to what was the 100th meeting of Marseille and PSG had been dominated by events of the last week in the Mediterranean city.
Marseille’s home game last weekend against Rennes was postponed after several hundred supporters attacked the club’s training ground, and three days later coach Andre Villas-Boas was suspended by the club — the first step in the legal process of sacking the Portuguese — after declaring at a press conference he wanted to resign.
Nasser Larguet, the head of Marseille’s youth academy, took charge for Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Lens and was again on the bench for this match.
The last league meeting of the teams in September was won 1-0 by Marseille, but was marred by five late red cards, including for Neymar. The Brazilian also later accused Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez of racism, although no action was taken due to a lack of evidence.
Ligue 1 top scorer Mbappe sprinted onto Angel di Maria’s pass to control and fire past Steve Mandanda for the opener, his 16th of the season. Broadcaster Canal Plus clocked Mbappe’s stunning sprint at 36 kilometres per hour.
Di Maria then hobbled off injured, before Icardi made it 2-0 midway through the first half.
The Argentine got in front of Alvaro to meet Alessandro Florenzi’s cross, the ball coming off the back of his neck and looping into the net.
Icardi was replaced by Neymar midway through the second half, with the Brazilian immediately becoming involved in a flashpoint with Alvaro.
The Spaniard was lucky only to concede a corner rather than a penalty as he tried to stop the world’s most expensive player, but Alvaro did jar his knee in the process and came off soon after.
The home side then had Payet sent off for a high boot on Marco Verratti.
- David double for Lille -
Canada’s Jonathan David continued his recent scoring streak with a brace as Lille saw off Nantes to reclaim top spot from Lyon, who beat Strasbourg 3-0 on Saturday.
David netted before and after the break to take his tally to five goals in as many games and hand Lille their sixth consecutive win.
He pounced on a defensive mix-up to put Lille in front early on and secured the points with a fantastic second seven minutes from time, playing a one-two with Renato Sanches before firing high into the net.
Nantes are in the bottom three having gone 15 matches without a win, including seven games under Raymond Domenech, the former France coach who was appointed in December.
Earlier Aleksandr Golovin scored a hat-trick on his first start since August after injury as Monaco defeated bottom club Nimes 4-3 to extend their winning run to seven matches. Golovin also set up Kevin Volland for Monaco’s fourth goal.
As much as I want England to win the World Cup and Erasmus to lose it, I’d absolutely love if Jones walked away with a World Cup winners medal. I know he had an offer on the table from munster and he turned it down but I can’t help but feeling he’s a loss to Irish rugby and that the IRFU and munster should have done more to keep him involved, even if it wasn’t with Munster.
@Jim Demps: really. Surprised.
Dont want to bad mouth the man, he was a great player. But tbought, he was a very poor attack coach. Herd from a source in the camp, that the players were getting depressed with the lack of invention in regards to attack play.
Do wish him well tho
@Paddy Waggon: era he’s only 32 as well, if we want to be developing Irish coaches then we need to give them a chance.
@Jim Demps: It was probably the best time for him personally to get away given he’s not tied down with family yet so the world is his oyster and a change of scenery is probably needed given how much of a target he became for the keyboard warriors. He’ll have no trouble finding himself work and there’s no way that’s the last of him coaching within the IRFU.
@Eddie Hekenui: yeah I’d hope he’ll come back in alright. As it stands there aren’t a whole pile of Irish lads in front line roles, Carolan and Duffy in connacht, Leo Cullen and Jared Payne would be about it. It’d be nice to see a few lads progress a bit and have a few more Irish lads ready to take on big roles. Rog, Davidson, Kidney, McCall are all top class coaches and the IRFU should be trying to get them employed at home.
@Jim Demps: I don’t see the need to have them all employed in Ireland. That just creates a closed loop. Far better to have them start off here, earn their spurs and then head off to wherever they can get jobs to experience different ideas, experiences and cultures. Then they can take all that knowledge and bring it back to Ireland. Them moving on also clears space for another young coach or two to move up the ladder.
@Jim Demps: Hugh Hogan is doing a good job at Leinster. He gained most of his knowledge in the AIL, good to see coaches from that level stepping up. Can see him continuing to progress.
@Eddie Hekenui: yeah that’s fair enough but the Irfu haven’t seemed too interested in bringing lads back yet. Of the last few high profile jobs in the country I’d love to have seen how many of the Irish lads I mentioned were spoken to by the IRFU. Conor o Shea is another guy who would have been a huge addition.
@Jim Demps: Well I think they have had their chance a few times with O’Shea, he took up a job with the RFU now so that’s him lost for a few more years. I’d really like to see him in the IRFU Management side of things rather than coaching, he does a good job on the field but I think he’s strategically better than most people think and his role with the Olympic Team GB prior to London shouldn’t be overlooked either. Is there an Australian out of contract in two years which Conor might be good at???
@ThatLJD: I think that’s be the ideal situation, having o shea in for nucifora. Conor has shown time and time again that he’s one of the best rugby administrators out there and it’d be great to have him running the show.
@Eddie Hekenui: yep. Rog gaining massive experience
@Jim Demps: I heard from a source? Yeah right
@Chris Tobin: fellas get too excited on here when they see me comment. Don’t even have to say anything anymore to trigger lads
@Chris Tobin: yeah, I’d also question the insistsnce that players became depressed by tactics. It should have told the commenter all they needed to know about their source.
@Eddie Hekenui: married, mortgage and 2 young kids. That’s about as tied down as you can get.
@Joe O’Doherty: Not really. Much harder to move when kids are older and you’re thinking about schools etc. You never hear coaches talk about mortgages etc when it comes to jobs but you hear them talking about their kids all the time.
Delighted for Felix. Contributed so much to Munster. He will be the first Irish man to win a rugby World Cup medal. Will it be gold or silver?
@Ivan O’Riordan: Kyran Bracken in 2003
@Eoin Jaypee: Wouldn’t be calling Bracken an Irishman. Lived his whole life in England.
@Eoin Jaypee: A couple of other candidates
Stephen Moore – Silver in 2015 – has strong Irish connections
Two Irish parents. Lived in Tuam for 5 years. Not born in Australia (not here either though).
John Gallagher from the 87 NZ team was similar and won the tournament. Born to two Irish parents in London before they emigrated to NZ, but I don’t think he ever lived in Ireland
@Chris Mansfield: Gallagher played for Ireland a back in the day too
@Chris Mansfield: Father from that great rugby stronghold ….Limerick City!!
@Ardmore02: and yet the Duke of Wellington can be considered Irish too. Different countries have different rules.
All his famous attacking expertise was really on display last Sunday.
@KH: Obviously worked better than Schmidt’s !!
@KH: Not Jones gig as he’s not the attack coach.
@KH: so quick to throw in a negative comment that you forgot what his role is.
@KH: made a right fool of yourself there kid
@Timmy O’Toole:
Dont worry @KH just look at the posters that are hitting at you .
@Martin Quinn:
He is a good guy, talked to him when he was up in Leinster and him and some other coaches dropped over to our club:: Down to earth and knew his stuff !!! Very happy for him as this could be a good thing to have on your CV.
As stolen from the internet….the moment you realise Matt Damon has won more world cups than Ireland.
Sad but true.
Good luck to Felix.
@Hirrison Mirk: you understand how movies work right?
@Dave O Keeffe: and France Scotland Wales and Argentina. Not just Ireland
@Dave O Keeffe: they act as a distraction from our World Cup campaign?
Absolutely delighted for Stephen Jones. I hope he gets a winner’s medal in Japan. It is fantastic that we have so many young Irish coaches going overseas to gain experience outside of the Irish model and bodes well for the future. I would love to see a structure in place that got them spending some time working in school rugby.
@Mr. Common Sense: Stephen?
@Ivan O’Riordan:
Lad read the page for God sake
FELIX JONES
Every time you want to praise England your reminded of how much of a foul, smug, little odious man Eddie Jones is.
Was going to support England, as the Northern Hemisphere team, in Saturday’s RWC final. But this bolt-from-the-blue revelation of a young Irishman, former International, being so closely involved behind the scenes with the Springboks has left one in a serious but very short-term dilemma.
Go Felix!
Hon’ the Boks!
Great experience for him.
Well deserved, especially after the way he was treated at Munster. They could regret that.
@Tom McGirr: Explain to us how he was treated at Munster please?
It’s such a shame that Felix had to retire from playing so young. He could easily be backup up to Bob until next RWC.