I have a lot of years to perfect myself – Mbappe far from finished after 100th Ligue 1 goal

 

Two goals against Lyon made it 100 in Ligue 1 for Kylian Mbappe, who became the youngest to reach that milestone in France's top flight.

Kylian Mbappe made it clear he is a long way from the finished article after scoring his 100th goal in Ligue 1 as Paris Saint-Germain went top with a 4-2 win at Lyon.

Mbappe opened and rounded off the scoring for PSG as they took advantage of Lille's shock home defeat to Nimes to move to the summit on goal difference, Danilo Pereira and Angel Di Maria also on target for the defending champions.

Lyon salvaged some pride with goals from Islam Slimani and Maxwel Cornet, which came either side of an injury for Mbappe that forced an early exit.

It did not appear a serious blow to the France star, who has been selected for Les Bleus' World Cup qualifiers as the domestic season pauses for an international break, as Mbappe was pictured smiling in the dugout shortly after.

Mbappe has plenty of reason to smile, having become the youngest player to bring up a century of goals in Ligue 1, doing so with his second of the evening when he latched on to a superb pass from Marco Verratti and swept past Anthony Lopes.

He achieved the feat at the age of 22 years, three months and one day. Saint-Etienne's Herve Revelli had been the youngest to three figures, also reaching that landmark against Lyon in 1969 at 23 years and five months old.

But Mbappe was keen to emphasise the bigger picture, seeing the milestone as just another step in his journey while expressing his pleasure at atoning for a misplaced pass that allowed Randal Kolo Muani to equalise in PSG's 2-1 loss to Nantes in their previous league fixture.

"It was a good date to score my 100th goal," Mbappe told Canal Plus. "After my pass to Kolo Muani against Nantes, I had to react well.

"What am I thinking of when I score the 100th? About the win, because I know we won after that.

"And that's another step in my career, and it's part of history. One hundred goals, that's good, the road continues. I still have a lot of years ahead of me to perfect myself.

"We had a good game, we won and we took back first place. We will make sure not to leave it anymore.

"Did the Lille result have an impact on our performance? Yes, a bit. But we came here to win.

"We had checked that date in the calendar, we knew it was an important moment in the championship. We knew they often got us in trouble. But we came with convictions and we put personality into it."

Asked about the influence of Mauricio Pochettino, who took over from Thomas Tuchel in January, Mbappe replied: "We changed the system with him. Each coach came with his philosophy. He came up with another game plan. It's starting to show little by little."