Tag: PSG

Ousmane Dembele was axed from Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) squad for Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Arsenal because he did not “comply with or respect the expectations of the team”, coach Luis Enrique said.

It follows reports in French media that the 27-year-old winger had a heated exchange with Luis Enrique following PSG’s 3-1 win against Rennes on Friday, in which Dembele was substituted late on.

Dembele has been one of the team’s stand-out players so far this season and featured in PSG’s Champions League win against Girona earlier this month.

But Luis Enrique, speaking at the Emirates in London on Monday, said the France international had not travelled with the squad from Paris.

“If someone doesn’t comply or respect the expectations of the team, it means they are not prepared to play,” he said.

“The match tomorrow is very important and I want all my players to be ready, so as a consequence I have left him (Dembele) out. I want the best for my team and that is my job.”

The former Spain manager said he was “100 percent” sure of his decision.

“It doesn’t mean this is irreversible, but I took the best decision for the team and that is why I signed here, to create a team that has a strong identity and has a lot of character,” he added.

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Asked to explain the altercation with Ousmane Dembele, Luis Enrique replied: “I am very honest and I will be honest, but I am not going to create a soap opera out of this.

“There are no problems between us. That is completely false. This is simply about the responsibilities of the player.”

Without the in-form Ousmane Dembele, who has four goals and as many assists in six league games this season, PSG will rely more heavily on Bradley Barcola.

Barcola is the leading scorer in the French top flight this season with six goals, two of which came in the victory over Rennes.

Luis Enrique praised Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, hailing his former Barcelona team-mate as one of the best managers in world football.

“He is one of the best coaches on the market at the moment,” he said. “He changed Arsenal’s fortunes from a somewhat winless streak to one of the best teams in the world that is competing for titles.

“I would go as far as to say they are the best team in Europe playing without the ball. He is a great coach and a great person.”

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Kylian Mbappe’s entourage said on Wednesday they had refused the French Football League’s (LFP) offer to act as a mediator between the France captain and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in their dispute over unpaid wages and bonuses for the striker.

Kylian Mbappe claims PSG owe him 55 million euros ($60.6m) which the Parisians say the 25-year-old had agreed to waive in August 2023.

The Real Madrid forward has demanded the sum, which includes a signing bonus he was expecting to receive in February, the three final months of his salary, as well as an “ethical bonus” covering the period.

Lawyers representing the two parties met early on Wednesday after Mbappe, who joined Madrid this summer, had referred his case to the LFP’s legal committee.

The league then offered to mediate.

“The eventuality of a mediation was mentioned this morning,” Mbappe’s entourage told AFP in a statement.

“This possibility was rejected during the meeting by the player’s representative.

“A mediation would be useless  to establish a lack of payment that can be seen from a simple analysis of the player’s payslip.”

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The LFP told AFP it would notify Kylian Mbappe and PSG of its decision in the case on Friday.

Earlier in the day, PSG had welcomed the proposition.

“Paris Saint-Germain is very pleased with today’s two-hour hearing before the commission,” PSG said.

“The club recalled that the player has made clear repeated public and private commitments that must be respected, having been afforded unprecedented benefits by the club over seven fantastic years in Paris.

“In the light of the club’s oral and documented arguments, the commission insisted on mediation between the parties, which Paris Saint-Germain has been seeking for many months.”

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Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) coach Luis Enrique said he had been lucky to work with Kylian Mbappe after the superstar forward played his last game for the club in Saturday’s 2-1 French Cup final win over Lyon.

Mbappe made his farewell appearance for PSG before an expected move to Real Madrid but he was unable to add to his club-record tally of 256 goals with Ousmane Dembele and Fabian Ruiz scoring on the night.

Dembele and Ruiz netted in the first half and PSG then withstood a Lyon comeback attempt after the break following a Jake O’Brien goal which reduced the deficit.

The most successful side in the history of the French Cup, PSG have now won the trophy 15 times, including seven times in the last decade and four since Mbappe signed from Monaco as a teenager in 2017.

The victory allowed PSG to complete a domestic league and cup double in Luis Enrique’s first season as coach, although the campaign remains overshadowed by their exit from the Champions League in the semi-finals against Borussia Dortmund.

“We played the final very well. We played with great intensity and were great on the ball,” said Luis Enrique.

“I think we have had a very good season. We would have liked to stay around for another week and not go on holiday yet but that is life,” he said, referring to next weekend’s Champions League final.

“Nobody said football was fair, but it doesn’t matter. Next season we will come back stronger and will look to sign even hungrier players, who have even more desire to win.”

Of the departing Mbappe he added: “I think I have been lucky to coach Kylian but it has been a difficult season for him because after seven years and all he has achieved it is always hard to say goodbye.

“But he was always prepared to help the team and tonight was the cherry on the cake even if he didn’t score.”

Mbappe was making his 308th and final appearance for his hometown club, for whom he signed in August 2017 from Monaco in a 180 million euro deal.

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Victory means he leaves PSG with four French Cup winners’ medals to go with six Ligue 1 titles and two victories in the now-defunct League Cup.

Mbappe finished his last season in Paris with 44 goals in all competitions, eight on PSG’s run to the Cup final.

He was centimetres away from giving PSG an early lead at Lille’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy, which was hosting the game with the usual venue the Stade de France being prepared to host the Olympics.

A second-minute corner was headed on by Lucas Beraldo and Mbappe, diving in at the far post, narrowly failed to connect with the ball.

Lyon survived an early onslaught but fell behind midway through the first half when Dembele was left completely unmarked at the back post to head in a cross.

Dembele turned provider as PSG scored again in the 34th minute when his ball to the back post was converted at the second attempt by Spain midfielder Ruiz.

Lyon, who enjoyed a remarkable revival in Ligue 1 to go from the bottom of the table in December to finish sixth and qualify for Europe, appeared down and out.

They did attempt a comeback, with Irish defender O’Brien heading in a corner 10 minutes after the break to give them hope.

But PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a brilliant save to tip a Nicolas Tagliafico header over the bar, and Alexandre Lacazette had a shot deflected wide as Mbappe and PSG held on.

“We have mixed feelings tonight,” said Lyon coach Pierre Sage.

“If you had told us at the start of December that we would qualify for Europe through the league and get to the Cup final, I don’t think anyone would have believed it.”

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Kylian Mbappe will bring the curtain down on his Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) career on Saturday and has the chance to sign off with another trophy in the French Cup final against Lyon.

It will be Mbappe’s 308th and final appearance for his hometown club, for whom he signed in August 2017 from Monaco in a 180 million euro deal.

That is assuming the France captain, now aged 25, plays in the game in Lille. He sat out PSG’s last two Ligue 1 matches of the campaign, their 2-1 win at Nice on May 15 and Sunday’s 2-0 win at Metz.

It seems that he was left out of those matches to keep him fresh for the Cup final, with PSG having already wrapped up the Ligue 1 title, although coach Luis Enrique hinted that he has not been entirely happy with his star man’s application of late.

“This week we will see who is ready, who is not, and who has the most desire,” he said last weekend. “The French Cup final is very important for us.”

Mbappe’s time with PSG has been laden with silverware, at least on the domestic scene.

He has helped the Qatar-owned club win the Ligue 1 title six times and the now-defunct League Cup twice. Victory against Lyon on Saturday will allow him to claim a fourth winners’ medal in the French Cup.

But of course, his time at the Parc des Princes has also been marked by a lack of success where it matters the most, in the Champions League.

Mbappe scored 42 goals in 64 appearances for Paris in Europe’s elite club competition, but PSG could not lift the trophy in those seven years — and have still never won it.

With Mbappe there was a run to the final in Lisbon in 2020, when PSG lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in a game played behind closed doors at the height of the pandemic.

There were two other appearances in the semi-finals, but he was unfit and an unused substitute in the second leg of the last-four loss to Manchester City in 2021, and simply did not perform when it really mattered in the defeat by Borussia Dortmund this season.

With Real Madrid expected to be his next destination, Mbappe will be hopeful of finally becoming a Champions League winner once he has moved away from Paris and from France.

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Mbappe has been a superstar ever since he broke through as a raw teenager in a brilliant Monaco team that won Ligue 1 in 2017.

He is an icon in France and will continue to be so while playing his club football abroad, just as Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry were in the past.

But he will be determined to sign off with one more trophy, with PSG having the opportunity to win both the Ligue 1 title and the French Cup in the same season for the first time since the Covid-curtailed 2019/20 campaign.

Mbappe’s own history in the French Cup finals has not always been happy, even if he has been on the winning side three times.

He was sent off in the 2019 final, which PSG lost on penalties against Rennes, and came off hurt in the first half of the following year’s final, as Paris got the better of Saint-Etienne.

But Mbappe usually turns up on the big occasion, and as well as his last game for PSG this will be his first final since the 2022 World Cup when he scored that stunning hat-trick against Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Doha.

The danger for Mbappe and PSG, however, is that they might not have everything their own way against Lyon.

Luis Enrique’s team comfortably won the title, but Lyon’s revival since being bottom of the league in early December has been astonishing.

Pierre Sage took over an ailing side and in five months has taken them to European qualification.

The final is being played outside of Paris and its surrounding region for the first time, with the Stade de France requisitioned for the upcoming Olympics.

The Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, with its capacity of 50,000, emerged as the obvious choice as a venue for the game given the identity of the finalists.

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Kylian Mbappe scored on his final home appearance as a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player on Sunday but the French champions suffered a surprise 3-1 defeat against Toulouse on the night they picked up the Ligue 1 championship trophy.

Mbappe confirmed in a video posted on social media on Friday that he would be leaving PSG when his contract expires at the end of the season, ending a seven-year association with the club.

Real Madrid is expected to be the next destination for a player whose departure from Paris had been an open secret since February when he privately informed the club of his intention to move on.

Kylian Mbappe wore the captain’s armband and opened the scoring early on for PSG against Toulouse to take his tally for the season to 44 goals in all competitions.

However, Thijs Dallinga quickly equalised for the visitors against a PSG side which showed 10 changes to the team knocked out of the Champions League by Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals in midweek, with Mbappe the only player to keep his place.

Yann Gboho put Toulouse ahead with a brilliant strike in the second half, and Frank Magri wrapped up the win in stoppage time as PSG suffered just their second Ligue 1 loss this season, and their first in 27 games since September.

Mbappe has now scored 256 times for PSG, a club-record tally, since signing from Monaco in 2017 in a deal worth 180 million euros ($194 million).

His tally of 191 goals in France’s top flight — including 16 with Monaco at the beginning of his career — puts him in seventh place in the all-time list. Coach Luis Enrique described the 25-year-old as “a club legend” when he spoke to the media on the eve of the game.

PSG had indicated that celebrations after Sunday’s match would be dedicated to their title triumph, rather than any specific tribute to Mbappe himself.

There were even some jeers from the crowd for the striker when the teams were read out before the game, although a huge display was unfurled before kick-off at one end of the stadium depicting Mbappe in a trademark pose with his arms folded.

“I heard applause, the supporters paid him a deserved tribute, he is a club legend despite his youth,” said Luis Enrique who described the banner as “beautiful”.

The Qatar-owned club had already wrapped up a record-extending 12th French title, and 10th in 12 years, before hosting a Toulouse side who were themselves safe from any lingering threat of relegation.

PSG’s Champions League disappointment means Mbappe will leave the club without ever having got his hands on European football’s greatest prize.

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With Kylian Mbappe, PSG were runners-up in 2020 and have since reached the last four on two further occasions, but the France captain will now hope to finally get his hands on the trophy at his next club.

PSG can still finish the season by completing a clean sweep of domestic honours, as they face Lyon in the French Cup final in Lyon on May 25.

As well as Ligue 1, they have also already won the Champions Trophy, France’s equivalent of a Super Cup.

Luis Enrique’s team will complete their league campaign with a visit to Nice on Wednesday before going to Metz in their final game next Sunday.

Elsewhere, Mbappe’s first club Monaco clinched second place and automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League with a 2-0 win away at Montpellier.

Lille moved up into third place above Brest on goal difference as Jonathan David netted twice in their 2-1 win at Nantes.

The top three in Ligue 1 qualify directly for next season’s expanded, 36-team Champions League with the team finishing fourth entering the competition in the preliminary rounds.

Nice are fifth and trail both Lille and Brest by four points but still have a chance of a top-four place before hosting PSG in midweek.

Lens drew 1-1 at Rennes to hold onto sixth, while Orel Mangala’s goal gave Lyon a 1-0 win at Clermont as they kept their European hopes alive.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Marseille beat Lorient 3-1 to also remain in the European picture.

At the bottom, Clermont’s defeat means they are relegated, while Lorient are almost certainly down too as they trail Metz by three points with one game left and have an inferior goal difference.

Metz, who lost 2-1 at Strasbourg, are therefore set to go into a play-off against a team from Ligue 2 with a top-flight place for next season on the line.

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French club Paris Saint Germain (PSG) is set to organize a farewell ceremony for star striker Kylian Mbappe on Sunday to honour his services for the club, reported by French newspaper L’Équipe.

Mbappe, who joined PSG as an 18-year-old in 2017, is set to leave the club and is likely to join Spanish club Real Madrid, who qualified for the UEFA Champions League final yesterday after edging past German club Bayern Munich.

Mbappe had hoped to sign off by leading PSG to Champions League glory for the first time in their history, and they were the favourites to see off Borussia Dortmund at the Parc des Princes in the semi-final second leg.

But they failed to overturn a one-goal first-leg deficit, with Mats Hummels scoring the only goal on the night to give Dortmund a 2-0 aggregate victory.

Mbappe was one of four PSG players to hit the woodwork in the second half, and coach Luis Enrique complained his side -– who had 31 attempts on goal — had been “unlucky”.

“I don’t really like to talk about bad luck,” Mbappe said after the match.

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“When you are good, you don’t hit the post, you score. I tried to help my team as best as I could but I didn’t do enough.

“When I say we needed to be more clinical, I am the one who has to be scoring. But this is life, we need to pick ourselves up.”

“When things are good, I take all the limelight and when they are not, you have to take the shadow.”

During his seven-year stay, he emerged as PSG’s all-time top goalscorer with 255 goals in 306 games.

He has won six Ligue 1 titles and three Coupes de France, including a domestic quadruple in the 2019–20 season with the French club.

He also led them to their first-ever UEFA Champions League final in 2020.

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Kylian Mbappe will not get his dream farewell from Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) after their shock Champions League exit at the hands of Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday deprived him of playing his last game for the club in the final at Wembley next month.

The 2018 World Cup winner will leave PSG after seven years when his contract expires at the end of this season, with Real Madrid his likely next destination.

He had hoped to sign off by leading the Qatar-owned club to Champions League glory for the first time in their history, and they were the favourites to see off Dortmund at the Parc des Princes in the semi-final second leg.

But they failed to overturn a one-goal first-leg deficit, with Mats Hummels scoring the only goal on the night to give Dortmund a 2-0 aggregate victory.

Mbappe was one of four PSG players to hit the woodwork in the second half, and coach Luis Enrique complained his side -– who had 31 attempts on goal — had been “unlucky”.

“I don’t really like to talk about bad luck,” Mbappe said a short while later.

“When you are good, you don’t hit the post, you score. I tried to help the best I could. When I say we needed to be more clinical, I am the one who has to be scoring. But this is life, we need to pick ourselves up.”

It will be hard for PSG to do that, given how close they were to reaching the final for the second time, four years on from their defeat against Bayern Munich in Lisbon.

That will forever remain as close as Mbappe came to lifting the European Cup with his hometown team, for whom he is their all-time top scorer with 255 goals.

A total of 42 of those have come in Europe’s elite club competition, but he could not add to that tally across the two legs against Dortmund.

“The end of his dream” was the headline in the sports daily L’Equipe, which gave a scathing assessment of the France captain’s performance, awarding him a mark of two out of 10.

Being knocked out by the team who sit fifth in the Bundesliga looks like a disaster for a club who have invested as much as PSG over the years since the Qatari takeover of 2011.

It is the latest in a long line of huge disappointments in the Champions League knockout rounds, still headed by their 6-1 defeat by Barcelona in the last 16 in 2017 after they won the first leg 4-0.

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“PSG hit their heads against the glass ceiling on a night when the sky seemed to be the limit,” reflected Vincent Duluc in L’Equipe.

“The truth is that this elimination is quite the collapse given the gigantic opportunity that was on offer.”

However, the truth is also that this PSG side was not seriously expected to get this far, despite the presence of Mbappe.

A massive overhaul of the squad was undertaken ahead of this season following the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar, and Luis Enrique was brought in to oversee the new project.

“The objective I set out when I arrived was to compete as well as we could for every trophy,” the Spanish coach said on Tuesday.

His side have already won Ligue 1 and Mbappe’s last game will now be the French Cup final against Lyon on May 25.

But perhaps a lack of experience at this level ultimately cost them -– according to statisticians Opta, their starting line-up had an average age of 24 years and 157 days, the youngest for any team in a Champions League semi-final since Arsenal against Manchester United in 2009.

Luis Enrique will have to hope the experience garnered by his young players can help them next year.

“We need to remember that it is a new project with a new coach, with lots of changes. There are lots of positives and good things to take forward into next season,” captain Marquinhos told broadcaster Canal Plus.

It is hard to imagine how PSG can be better equipped to win the Champions League without Mbappe, though, even if they will surely spend big money on a replacement.

The coach has regularly either left Mbappe out of his team or taken his star player off in domestic league games over the last three months, apparently in the name of planning for next season.

That strategy has not ultimately helped PSG win the one trophy they really crave in this campaign, and Mbappe — now aged 25 — will hope to finally get his hands on it after leaving Paris.

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Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique said Tuesday he was “very happy” with star attacker Kylian Mbappe during a press conference on the eve of his side’s French Cup semi-final clash with Rennes, as he downplayed rumours of a rift.

Following Mbappe’s announcement to the club in February that he would leave Paris at the end of his contract this summer, the Frenchman has seen his playing minutes reduced and he looked visibly unhappy when substituted off with half an hour to play in PSG’s 2-0 win at Marseille on Sunday.

Asked about Kylian Mbappe’s attitude when leaving the pitch at the Velodrome, PSG’s Spanish coach Luis Enrique said: “What’s curious is everything that’s being said based on a piece of false news.

“Someone has invented an insult (based on a lipreading of a video showing Mbappe as he made his way off the pitch) and then from that comes all kinds of speculations.”

After the match, Mbappe posted a photo on Instagram of himself walking off the field under the rain, holding the captain’s armband in his hand — in the absence of Brazilian defender Marquinhos, the attacker was PSG’s captain on the night.

“I’m taking it all in my stride. I’m very happy with all my players, Kylian included, he’s always behaved admirably,” said Luis Enrique at Tuesday’s press conference.

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Ahead of PSG’s fixture with arch-rivals Marseille, the Spaniard said Saturday in an interview with Prime Video that Mbappe “can still change his mind” about leaving.

Although heavily linked to Spanish giants Real Madrid, Mbappe has still not announced where he will play football next season after his current contract expires with PSG.

Still in contention for three titles — the French league, French cup and Champions League — PSG now enter a crucial phase of their season.

On Wednesday, they will welcome Rennes to the Parc des Princes where they are favourites to book a place in the French Cup final on May 25 in Lille.

The following Wednesday, Luis Enrique’s former side Barcelona visit PSG for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

“We’re all in the same boat, sailing and seeking success,” said Luis Enrique of his side’s treble quest.

“I’d love this to end well for PSG, for Kylian, for everyone.”

On Tuesday, Lyon host second-division Valenciennes in the first semi-final tie of the French Cup with the winners facing either PSG or Rennes in May’s showpiece final.

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Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) overcame a controversial first-half sending-off to win 2-0 away to bitter rivals Marseille in Ligue 1 on Sunday, with Portuguese duo Vitinha and Goncalo Ramos scoring their goals.

Marseille’s hopes of a first home league win against PSG since November 2011 were raised when the away side had Lucas Beraldo sent off five minutes before the interval.

But the Qatar-owned club still came out on top, with Vitinha exchanging passes with Ousmane Dembele before firing home a superb opening goal in the 53rd minute on a wet night at the Velodrome.

Marseille, who had been unbeaten at home this season, went looking for an equaliser and Jordan Veretout had a goal disallowed for an offside against team-mate Luis Henrique.

PSG coach Luis Enrique then withdrew captain Kylian Mbappe just after the hour mark and it was his replacement Ramos who made sure of the win five minutes from time.

The goal came on the breakaway, with the visitors clearing a corner before Achraf Hakimi found Marco Asensio and he picked out Ramos, who finished coolly for his 10th goal of the season.

Only Mbappe, with 38 in all competitions, has found the net more often for PSG this season.

The result means PSG end the weekend as they started it, 12 points clear of second-placed Brest, who won 1-0 at Lorient earlier on Sunday.

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There are just seven games of the campaign remaining, and PSG need only 10 more points to claim a 10th title in 12 seasons.

The biggest talking point on the night was the red card for Beraldo, the young Brazilian defender signed in January.

He went shoulder-to-shoulder with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, knocking the attacker over just past halfway near the right touchline.

Already on a booking, he escaped a second caution but then referee Benoit Bastien came across to check the VAR monitor and, following the review, surprisingly chose to show Beraldo a straight red card, judging him to have been the last defender.

“I don’t usually judge refereeing decisions, especially when there is VAR,” said Luis Enrique. “The action happened right in front of me, and I didn’t think there was a foul.

“But I don’t come here to talk about the referee, to comment on his decisions or to demand explanations.”

Marseille could not take advantage of the extra man and a second straight league loss means they remain seventh, three points away from the European places.

PSG face Rennes at home in the French Cup semi-finals on Wednesday, and host Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final a week later.

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An unstoppable Kylian Mbappe hit a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) romped to a 6-2 win away to Montpellier on Sunday that allowed them to open up a huge 12-point lead at the top of Ligue 1.

Vitinha put PSG ahead at the Stade de la Mosson and Kylian Mbappe doubled their advantage midway through the first half, only for an Arnaud Nordin header and a Teji Savanier penalty to bring Montpellier back level at the interval.

However, a marvellous Mbappe goal restored PSG’s lead shortly after the break and Lee Kang-in made it 4-2 before the France captain completed his hat-trick.

Nuno Mendes put the seal on the victory late on, as Luis Enrique’s side ended a run of three successive draws in Ligue 1 and extended an unbeaten domestic record stretching back to September.

A 1-1 draw for nearest challengers Brest against Lille means the Parisians are 12 points ahead at the Ligue 1 summit with only eight games left, and a 10th title in 12 seasons is an inevitability.

Mbappe completed the whole 90 minutes of a Ligue 1 game for the first time since informing the club in mid-February that he intended to leave at the end of the season when his contract expires.

His hat-trick, his third of the campaign, took him to 24 goals in Ligue 1 this season, and 38 in all competitions.

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Mbappe’s second of the evening, PSG’s third, was the pick of the bunch, as he found the net with a superb shot from range which went in off the underside of the crossbar.

The downside of their performance came with the way in which they surrendered their 2-0 lead in the first half, conceding the penalty when Tanguy Coulibaly pounced on Danilo Pereira’s short back-pass and was then clattered by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The defeat for Montpellier leaves them just a point above third-bottom Nantes, who are in the relegation play-off place and on Sunday sacked coach Jocelyn Gourvennec.

Canadian striker Jonathan David continued his superb form in front of goal by scoring for Lille in their draw away to fellow Champions League contenders Brest.

David gave Lille the lead midway through the second half in Brittany with his 22nd goal of the season in all competitions, and his 15th since the turn of the calendar year.

The 24-year-old has netted 10 times in his team’s last nine Ligue 1 outings. His total of 15 in Ligue 1 this season is bettered only by Mbappe.

However, that goal was not enough to win the game, as Uruguayan striker Martin Satriano poked in a late equaliser for Brest, who remain second.

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