Mbappe breaks goal record as PSG win ahead of Bayern showdown
Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Paris St Germain v Nantes - Parc des Princes, Paris, France - March 4, 2023 Paris St Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates with a trophy during the ceremony after becoming Paris St Germain's all time top goalscorer with 201 goals Franck Fife/POOL via REUTERS
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Kylian
Mbappe became Paris Saint-Germain's all-time top scorer with his 201st goal for
the club as the Ligue 1 leaders warmed up for their crunch trip to Bayern
Munich with a 4-2 win over Nantes on Saturday.
The France
superstar had equalled Edinson Cavani's previous record mark of 200 goals with
a brace in last week's win at Marseille and went one better by netting in
stoppage time at the Parc des Princes.
PSG had
earlier squandered a two-goal lead, with Lionel Messi putting them ahead and a
Jaouen Hadjam own goal making it 2-0 inside 17 minutes before Nantes fought
back to draw level.
Ludovic Blas
pulled one back for the visitors and Ignatius Ganago equalised, but Mbappe set
up Danilo Pereira to put PSG back in front on the hour mark and then claimed
his record-breaking goal late on.
Mbappe
reached the record in just 247 appearances since signing from Monaco aged 18 in
2017.
Uruguay star
Cavani needed 298 games, and seven years, to establish the previous record in
2020.
The
24-year-old Mbappe was handed a trophy by the club after the game to mark his
record in an on-field presentation.
"I play
to make history and I have always said I wanted to make history in France, in
the capital of my country, in my city, and I am doing that. It's magnificent,
but there is still a lot to be done," Mbappe, who finished the game as
captain, told broadcaster Canal Plus.
"For
me, as a native Parisian, this is special. If someone had said to me I would
score the goal to beat the record while wearing the captain's armband, I would
not have believed it."
The result
saw PSG open up a lead of 11 points at the top of Ligue 1 before nearest rivals
Marseille play on Sunday, and before the Qatar-owned club go to Bayern for the
second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.
PSG trail
1-0 from the first leg against the Bavarians and failure to progress to the
quarter-finals in Europe would put a major dampener on the end of their season.
Hakimi watches
from stands
Injured
Moroccan star Achraf Hakimi watched from the stands at the Parc des Princes a
day after he was charged with rape following accusations made by a 24-year-old
woman.
Neymar was
also a spectator and will not be back for the match against Bayern, while
centre-back Presnel Kimpembe is set to miss the remainder of the season with an
achilles injury.
Coach
Christophe Galtier lost two more defenders to injury in the second half against
Nantes, with skipper Marquinhos and stand-in right-back Nordi Mukiele both
having to come off.
Before the
game there was a minute's applause for Just Fontaine, the legendary former
France striker who scored 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup and who passed away on
Wednesday aged 89.
Fontaine
also coached PSG, leading them to promotion to the top tier of French football
in 1974.
The
Parisians went ahead in the 12th minute, with Messi turning in a deflected low
cross from Nuno Mendes to score his 13th Ligue 1 goal this season.
The unfortunate
Hadjam's own goal had PSG cruising, but a Blas shot that surprised Gianluigi
Donnarumma just after the half-hour mark brought Nantes back into the game and
Cameroonian forward Ganago's header made it 2-2 before the break.
PSG had also
blown a two-goal lead in their last home game against Lille a fortnight ago
before recovering to win 4-3, and they repeated the feat here with Mbappe
playing a starring role.
His assist
was headed in by Danilo to make it 3-2 just before the hosts were awarded a
penalty for a foul on Mukiele, only for a VAR check to rule that the contact
had taken place outside the box.
It looked
like Mbappe would be made to wait for his record before he struck right at the
end with a finish on the turn.
Earlier Lens
missed the chance to climb above Marseille into second place as they drew 1-1
at home to northern rivals Lille, for whom Canada star Jonathan David grabbed
the equaliser.


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