With a historic 'little hand' and in the absence of
Lionel Messi
due to rest ,
Kylian Mbappe
put together his own party with
Paris Saint Germain
, who comfortably went through the round of 16 of the
French Cup
, with a resounding 7-0 against him modest
Pays de Cassel
, which competes in the regional Sixth Division.
With only
eleven minutes difference
, in the first half, the French striker had already signed a hat-trick, which he later extended to a player, to become the first player in PSG history to convert that many goals in an official match.
For the team that moved its home to Lens due to the modesty and low capacity of its stadium, it was enough to share a tie with a rival that multiplies it in value of its squad (900 million euros against just 400 thousand), full of stars that, with the exception of Leo Messi, discarded by the coach
Christian Galtier
, they were part of the duel.
With a recognizable team, full of headlines, the leader of Ligue 1 faced the commitment, who reflected from the beginning the enormous distance between the two teams.
The resistance of the Pays de Cassel did not reach half an hour because at minute 29 Mbappe opened the scoring, who also scored at 34 and 40, after having assisted Neymar in the team's second goal.
The festival continued in the second part.
Mbappe signed the fifth, the fourth in his account, with a pass from Neymar and the sixth came through the Spanish
Carlos Soler
.
He repeated the Parisian scorer in the final stretch to bring a ball into the net served by his friend Achraf Hakimi.
The five goals also allowed Mbappe to become the top scorer in the history of the 'Coupe', a tournament that has been held since 1918, with a total of 29 conquests (in just 25 games played with Monaco and PSG), as well as
Jean Pierre Papin
(he did them between Marseille and Bordeaux), and one more than the Portuguese
Miguel Pauleta
(28 with Bordeaux and PSG).
As a formality, PSG went through the round to now meet
Olympique Marseille
, their next rival in another edition of the classic, and join other classifieds such as Lyon, Lorient, Reims, Toulouse, Angers, Lille, Auxerre, Nantes and Lens, from Ligue 1, Paris FC, Grenoble, Rodez and Annecy, from Ligue 2 and Verzon, survivor of the Fourth Division.
Photo: REUTERS/Yves Hermann
It will be the eighth 'classic' cup bearer in the last 22 years and PSG won them all.
Although Marseille are on a roll, with eight consecutive championship victories, which took them to third position, just five points behind the Parisian outfit.
The Marseillaise team hasn't won the 'Coupe' since 1989, while PSG has won six of the last eight editions.
Why didn't Messi play?
The second half of the 2022-23 campaign did not start in the best way for Paris Saint Germain
, used to walking against their French peers:
three wins and two losses
in five official matches after the World Cup, maintaining first place in the Ligue 1 but with just three points ahead of Lens, one of his executioners.
Several of the figures of the Parisian team represented their teams in Qatar 2022 and reached the final stages, with how physically exhausting it is to play a World Cup in the middle of the season, and they seem to show the accumulation of matches.
The defeat against Rennes, with Messi, Neymar and Mbappe from the start, was a warning sign.
For this reason, Lionel Messi was not called up for the match, after the tour of Saudi Arabia and the 60 minutes he played against Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh Seasons team -led by Marcelo Gallardo- last week.
It was the third match in just nine days for the 35-year-old Argentine
, with the addition of the trip to Arab lands, after having rejoined the activity since that final on December 18 at the Lusail stadium against France.
Messi had completed the duels against Angers (2-0 win, scored a goal) and Rennes (0-1 loss), both for Ligue 1. He had also rested in the previous round of the French Cup, against Chateauroux.
With the title in Ligue 1 on the way, Galtier aims his cannons at the round of 16 of the Champions League, where he was second in his group -Benfica from Portugal won it- and the draw determined that he would face Bayern Munich: on the 14th of February in Paris and March 8 in Germany.
look also
Why Galtier did not summon Messi for the French Cup match that PSG is playing today
Messi rests after the tour of Saudi Arabia and will not play for PSG for the French Cup
Haaland breaks records: another hat-trick at City to surpass the mark of the scorers of the last Premier League
Lisandro Martínez's popcorn did not reach United, who lost a great game against leader Arsenal in the Premier League on the hour
