Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring for Paris Saint-Germain in a straightforward 5-0 win over Auxerre at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.
Paris Saint-Germain restored their five-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 ahead of the World Cup break with a routine 5-0 win over Auxerre at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.
Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring early on after good play from Lionel Messi, who returned from injury to join the France striker and Neymar in attack.
PSG’s seventh straight win in all competitions never looked in doubt when Carlos Soler added the second goal before assisting Achraf Hakimi to head home the third.
Christophe Galtier made full use of the depth of his squad and substitutes Renato Sanches and Hugo Ekitike added gloss to the scoreline with a couple of late goals.
The low-key nature of the competition ensured that Galtier was able to replace a number of PSG stars heading to Qatar, with no player having any injury problems of any kind.
Messi sent a wonderful lofted ball over the Auxerre defense for Nuno Mendes to pass first-time to Mbappe, who helped it over the line on 11 minutes.
The goal was ruled a possible handball against Neymar after a VAR review, but Auxerre almost equalized when M’Baye Niang forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into a good save.
PSG toiled before Mendes took the ball past several players and picked out Soler to glance a header away from Benoit Costilo and wide of the far post early in the second half.
Soler turned provider six minutes later as he played in Hakimi, comfortably slotting past Costilo from a one-on-one position.
Messi hit the post but couldn’t get his name on the scoresheet, although Sanches fired wide of the post before fellow defender Ekitike capitalized on a poor save to coolly add a fifth.
