Pochettino
Kylian Mbappe put a sword through Barcelona’s heart with his hattrick and another goal from Moise Kean cancelled out Lionel Messi’s penalty to condemn Barcelona to a 4-1 loss at Camp Nou.
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino praised hattrick hero Mbappe, who stepped up in the absence of injured talisman Neymar to give the Parisiens an edge going into the second leg at Parc de Princes.
Poch lauded Mbappe as one of the best players in the world and that he showed his class in the convincing victory and he also revealed a training ground conversation with Mbappe, who promised him of his second win as manager over Barcelona at Camp Nou.
“Yesterday in our training session he asked me how many times I had won at the Camp Nou. I said once with Espanyol, and he assured me that tonight I’d win for a second time. He’s a top guy.” Poch said during his post-match conference.
Barcelona have mountains to climb if they want to avoid going a second season without silverware. First is to overcome a two goal deficit against Sevilla in the Copa Del Rey, beat PSG in Paris to proceed to the Champions League quarterfinals and close the gap on Atletico Madrid at the top of the La Liga table.
PSG would hope to do better than they did last season where they lost in the Champions League final to Bayern Munich under Thomas Tuchel who is now in charge at Chelsea. They are also in second place, a point behind Lille on the Ligue 1 table.