The Mbappé family will not forget December 20 in a hurry: Birthday boy Kylian scored a brace in the 3-1 home win over Metz before his 16-year-old brother made his Ligue 1 debut
If Kylian Mbappé had had to draw his 25th birthday, he would almost certainly have looked like this. The 2018 World Cup winner scored a brace in the home game against Metz and then got to see Luis Enrique help his 16-year-old brother Ethan make his debut in the French top flight.
45 minutes of Wednesday evening were not at all like a party: PSG had their problems with newly promoted Metz in the first half. Vitinha had one of the rare chances (9′) before the visitors sniffed the lead out of nowhere: Danilo Pereira headed against his own post from van den Kerkhof’s cross (24).
The scattered whistles on the way into the dressing room and Luis Enrique’s words must have spurred Paris on. Because after the break, Mbappé & Co. showed a completely different face. After a fantastic cross from Lee, the strong Vitinha quickly made it 1:0 (49′). Shortly afterwards, Kolo Muani headed onto the roof of the net after a copy of Lee’s cross (54′).
Mbappé makes the most of a gift
On the hour mark, birthday boy Mbappé rewarded himself for the first time. Following a pass from Vitinha, Mbappé struck the ball against the underside of the crossbar with an unstoppable arc – 2:0 (60′). The champagne bottles were already being chilled in the background when captain Udol unexpectedly brought the visitors back into the game with a perfect header following a corner (72′).
Metz then had the confidence to do a lot, but then gave away one gift too many: Mbappé lurked in front of a misplaced back pass from Nduquidi only to round keeper Oukidja and make it 3:1 (83′).
It got emotional in stoppage time when the beaming 16-year-old Ethan Mbappé came on. Shortly afterwards, Goncalo Ramos, who had also come on as a substitute, missed an even better home win after a fine assist from Vitinha (90.+5).
Because Nice defeated RC Lens with a double in the parallel game, PSG’s five-point lead remains intact going into the winter break. Right behind them are Adi Hütter and AS Monaco, who won 2-1 at Toulouse on Wednesday evening
