Mbappe Aimed To Take PSG To UEFA CL Quarter-Final

PARIS: Kylian Mbappe headed to Munich after breaking Paris Saint-Germain’s record and determined to lead the French giants past Bayern to the quarter-finals of the European Champions League.

PSG trailed 1-0 after losing in the first leg of the last 16, where the injured Mbappe was only briefly included in the match last month.

But the 24-year-old France star made the most of the short spell by scoring but having it ruled out for offside, signaling that he can turn their fortunes around in Munich.

Since that defeat, the Ligue 1 leaders have bounced back to record three domestic wins, scoring 11 goals in total.

Mbappe hit five of them, including one in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Nantes which saw him surpass Edinson Cavani’s record as PSG’s top scorer – five years after he joined the club from Monaco in 2017.

Mbappe, who last December became the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final since Geoff Hurst in 1966, has now collected 201 goals in 247 games for PSG.

“All players play to make a name in the history of football, so that they will be remembered. I think with this record people will remember me here,” said Mbappe.

Mbappe scored 30 goals in 30 games for the club this season and is arguably the best player in the world at the moment, although he was pipped by teammate Lionel Messi for the FIFA Player of the Year award.

Messi, with 18 goals for PSG this season, has played the mastermind behind Mbappe’s finishing moves in Cristhope Galtier’s squad – which is missing Neymar ahead of the trip to Munich with an ankle injury.

The Brazilian forward will be out until the end of the season following surgery on his ankle days away.

Should they be eliminated again in the first round of the Champions League knockout stages, it would be PSG’s fifth in seven seasons.

They lost to Bayern in Lisbon in the 2020 final, but Mbappe’s best performance came the following year in Munich.

Mbappe exploded twice in the first quarter-final to win 3-2 at the Allianz Arena.