Mbappe leads PSG to 2-0 road win as Messi makes debut off bench

Reims, France, Aug 29 (EFE).- Kylian Mbappe led Paris Saint-Germain to victory on Sunday, scoring both the team’s goals as it blanked Reims on Lionel Messi’s much-anticipated debut match with the Paris club after he left Barcalona over a financial dispute.

Messi started the match on the bench, only being sent onto the pitch in the 66th minute to replace Neymar at August Delaune stadium, where the 21,000-strong sell-out crowd had chanted his name while he was out warming up before the match.

The match was viewed on television and online by millions of fans eager to see how Messi performed in his first outing since leave the Spanish squad and amid rumors about Mbappe’s potential transfer to Real Madrid, and the result of the contest was that PSG emerged with its fourth-out-of-four win of the season so far.

Mbappe’s first tally came in the 15th minute when he got a great crossing shot from Angel Di Maria and headed in the 1-0.

The focused 22-year-old was in the right spot again in the 63rd minute when Achraf Hakimi fired a low cross to him and he sent it into the twine.

Reims – coached by Spaniard Oscar Garcia Junyent – didn’t have much of a chance against the PSG powerhouse, but with the score at 1-0, the VAR nullified a Reims tally.

So far, Real Madrid has reportedly had two offers rejected for Mbappe, who won the World Cup for France, the latest of them said to be for 180 million euros (about $212 million) although his contract is due to expire at the end of this season, whereupon he will be freed up to negotiate on his own in January, thus denying the French squad a transfer fee.

EFE