Kylian Mbappe was in good shape again as Paris St. Germain beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at home to start their Champions League season on Tuesday. This showed glimpses of what could happen under new coach Luis Enrique.
At the Parc des Princes, PSG’s patience paid off when Mbappe scored on a spot kick in the second half and Achraf Hakimi scored a great goal.
It was only the Ligue 1 winners’ third win in six games this season, and it gave them much-needed relief after their first loss at the weekend. They followed Enrique’s possession game to the letter.
PSG has three points, which is two more than AC Milan and Newcastle, who tied 0-0 earlier on Tuesday.
The home team wasn’t very good in their first big game of the season, but PSG was rarely in trouble because they controlled the middle. Everything seemed to come together when Mbappe calmly put away his penalty four minutes into the second half.
Donyell Malen got some space in the PSG area and took a shot, but Gianluigi Donnarumma easily saved it. This was Dortmund’s first clear chance.
Five minutes later, Vitinha, who was in charge of the center in the first half, hit the post with a great shot from just outside the box for PSG.
After half an hour, the Portuguese had another chance, but his shot was blocked and went over the bar.
PSG didn’t have much of an edge until early in the second half, when Mbappe’s shot was blocked by Niklas Suele after Dembele and Hakimi worked together on the right wing to find Dembele. Dembele then passed to Dembele, who found Mbappe in the penalty area.
Mbappe scored from the resulting spot to give PSG the lead they earned and score his 11th goal in the Champions League in his last nine games.
Hakimi made it 2-0 in the 58th minute when Vitinha set him up perfectly and he chipped the ball in with the outside of his foot.
The last 30 minutes were then ruled by PSG, and Borussia didn’t do anything to harm.