Kylian Mbappe scored on his Paris Saint-Germain debut as Metz were left to rue Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s controversial second-half dismissal in a 5-1 victory for the Ligue 1 title favourites.
Monaco loanee Mbappe was handed a start in a fearsome-looking PSG line-up which also featured world-record signing Neymar, Julian Draxler and Edinson Cavani.
It was Cavani who opened the scoring in the 31st minute, calmly rounding goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima to slot home from Neymar’s throughball.
But the visitors were stunned by Emmanuel Riviere’s leveller before the interval following excellent work from Mathieu Dossevi, as the bottom club threatened to spring a surprise on the league leaders.
Riviere should have put Metz ahead early in the second half after Alphonse Areola failed to deal with a back-pass, but PSG escaped and Assou-Ekotto’s 56th-minute red card for a strong but seemingly fair challenge on Mbappe turned the tide in their favour.
Mbappe was the man to make them pay, the 18-year-old marking his maiden PSG outing with a well-taken finish three minutes later, while a goal-line clearance denied him a second.
Neymar added the third with a fine 20-yard finish and Cavani netted again – substitute Lucas Moura bundling in the fifth – as PSG christened the ‘MCN’ trio that may well rival Barcelona’s legendary and now defunct ‘MSN’ triumvirate.
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