Mbappé

Paris, February 2 (PL)-- Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) beat Montpellier 3-1 away with Lionel Messi's ninth goal in Ligue1, a matchday 21 game that Kylian Mbappé left with an injury.

After a fateful first half at the Stade de la Mosson, where Mbappé missed an early penalty and left the pitch with a thigh injury, Fabian Ruiz opened the scoring in the 55th minute, Messi brilliantly finished off a one-on-one with goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte to make it 2-0 in the 72nd minute and Warren Zaire-Emery made it 2-0 in stoppage time.

For the locals, Arnaud Nordin scored in the 89th minute to give them the lead, in a match in which the Brazilian Neymar was absent due to muscular problems.

With the victory, PSG reached 51 points, five ahead of Olympique de Marseille, which displaced Lens (45) from the runner-up position.

Injuries to Mbappé and Neymar are troubling the team from the capital and its supporters, just 13 days before the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League against the mighty Bayern Munich.

In matchday 21, Marseille defeated Nantes 2-0 and took advantage of the defeat of second-placed Lens, beaten 1-0 by Nice.

The battle for the European places remains tight, with fourth-placed Monaco (41) winning 3-2 against Auxerre and fifth-placed Rennes (40) beating Strasbourg 3-0.

Also on Wednesday, Reims beat Lorient 4-2, Toulouse 4-1 at Troyes and Ajaccio 2-1 at Angers, while the Lille-Clermont (0-0) and Olympique Lyon-Stade Brestois (0-0) matches ended in draws.

A new top scorer in Ligue 1 was 21-year-old British striker Folarin Balogun (Reims), whose hat-trick today took his tally to 14 goals, one more than Mbappé.