Mbappe fires PSG into Coupe de France quarters
Mbappe took his tally Kylian Mbappe put speculation over his future to one side to fire Paris St Germain into the Coupe de France quarter-finals with a 3-1 win over Brest. the season to 30 goals with a powerful strike in a 3-1 cup win.
Talk over a potential move to Real Madrid this summer has again intensified in recent days, but Mbappe grabbed his sixth goal in this competition and took his overall tally for the season to 30 with a 34th-minute opener.
Danilo Pereira doubled PSG’s advantage soon after and while Steve Mounie reduced the deficit with 65 minutes played, Lilian Brassier received his marching moments later for Brest before substitute Goncalo Ramos sealed the hosts’ success in stoppage time.
Brest had fought back to earn a 2-2 draw at Parc des Princes in Ligue 1 last month, but PSG were boosted by the return of Achraf Hakimi after his Africa Cup of Nations disappointment with Morocco.
Luis Enrique shuffled his pack with Danilo, Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola brought into the team from Friday’s league win over Strasbourg, which extended their lead at the summit to eight points.
Visiting Brest started strongly and they forced a number of corners during the opening exchanges before Gianluigi Donnarumma made a fine save to deny Hugo Magnetti.
It was to prove crucial with Mbappe able to open the scoring moments later.
Warren Zaire-Emery played a key role, nipping in to find Mbappe, who turned in the area and sent a powerful strike into the corner.
PSG were in the ascendancy and it was 2-0 with eight minutes of the first half remaining.
Dembele did well out wide and crossed in for centre-back Danilo to tap home from close-range.
It was almost three for the hosts before the break but Mbappe thundered an effort against the crossbar following a slick break and Dembele then hit a post from a tight angle.
Those squandered chances kept Brest in the contest and a double change by Eric Roy helped the away side reduce the deficit.
Romain Del Castillo and Mathias Pereira Lage were introduced on the hour mark and the latter quickly made his mark when his cross was headed home by Mounie with 65 minutes on the clock.
Any chance Brest had of restoring parity were hit when Brassier received a second yellow for a poor challenge on Mbappe, who was able to carry on after some treatment.
Mbappe went close to securing the victory with two late efforts, which were saved by Gregoire Coudert before PSG did grab a third.
While Mbappe was involved, it was Hakimi who played the telling pass to the back post where substitute Ramos tapped home in the second minute of stoppage time to book PSG’s place in the last eight.
