Mbappe’s skill and Lee’s early goal help PSG win the Champions Trophy.
After defeating Toulouse 2-0 to win the Champions Trophy on Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain won their first French season trophy thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe and Lee Kang-in in the first half.
In the third minute of his last game before being called up to the South Korean national team for the Asian Cup in Qatar, Lee gave PSG the lead, putting Toulouse in for a difficult battle at the Parc des Princes.
Just before halfway, Mbappe added an incredible second goal to help Paris win the Champions Trophy for the tenth time in the previous eleven seasons.
“In the first half, we played really well. Luis Enrique, the coach of PSG, declared, “It was the best 45 minutes of my time here,” accepting his first coaching honor since leaving Barcelona in 2017.
The season’s kickoff event, the French version of the Super Cup, has been staged overseas for the past 15 years, most recently in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the current campaign.
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This season’s event was rescheduled from its original August date in Thailand to PSG’s home field rather than a neutral venue.
The current Ligue 1 champions, led by Luis Enrique, had an early advantage due to home field advantage as they scored. Lee converted a first-time pass from Ousmane Dembele into the center.
Lee scored his third goal of the year, and as South Korea looks to win the Asian Cup for the first time since 1960, he is sure to be a key player.
Late in the first half, Thijs Dallinga’s attempt was nearly equalized for Toulouse, who were playing as the French Cup winners from the previous season, but PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma parried it onto the post.
But shortly before the break, Mbappe—who will be a free agent at the end of the campaign—took a pass from Bradley Barcola and scored an incredible goal, his 22nd in all competitions this year, to give PSG a larger advantage.
Toulouse was able to prevent further goals from being conceded when Achraf Hakimi struck the post with a second-half free kick.
On Skriniar’s injury, Luis Enrique said, “It is nothing minor, so we will wait and see what the tests show, but I am sure he will be out of our coming games.”
Hakimi will now travel to the Africa Cup of Nations with Morocco, who is favored in this Ivory Coast game. The Asian Cup final is one day sooner than the AFCON final, which is set for February 11. Hakimi and Lee won’t return to PSG until shortly before the first leg of their Champions League last-16 match against Real Sociedad on February 14, if they make significant progress in their respective competitions.
