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HomeSportsMessi and Mbappe Score as Paris St-Germain thrashed Maccabi Haifa

Messi and Mbappe Score as Paris St-Germain thrashed Maccabi Haifa

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Paris St-Germain crushed Maccabi Haifa with two goals apiece from Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, advancing them into the Round 16 of the Champions League.

While Shon Goldberg scored an own goal, Neymar and Carlos Soler scored goals.

Messi became the first player to reach 80 goals in the Champions League group stage with his two goals.

PSG leads Group H with 11 points after five games, tied with Benfica, while Juventus and Maccabi Haifa have three points each and have yet to advance.

The crossbar prevented Messi from scoring a record-tying eighth hat trick in the Champions League.

READ MORE: European champions Real Madrid suffered a first defeat of the season

After losing 4-3 to Benfica, Juventus failed to advance to the knockout round for the first time since the 2013–14 season.

Massimiliano Allegri, the coach of Juventus, claims his team is “sad and furious,” but he won’t call failing to advance from the group a “failure.”

Benfica had a 4-1 lead when Juventus’s Arkadiusz Milik and Weston McKennie scored twice in three minutes to set up a thrilling conclusion.

However, the Portuguese team won and went to the round of 16, joining PSG.

Juventus, who lost in the final of the Europa League in 2015 and 2017, can only now finish third in Group H, which would guarantee them a spot in the knockout rounds.

Juve has had a difficult season and is now ninth in Serie A, 10 points behind leader Napoli.

In the first half, we were too soft defensively, more so than the poor attitude, said Allegri, whose team will play PSG in the last round of group games the following week.

“We must keep focused on the league while also being focused versus Paris to at least secure a spot in the Europa League.

“Tonight, we made many errors, but discussing them now would be pointless. This is hardly a failure. There are losses in football.

“We’re sad and furious. Since the squad performed well, there is no physical issue. We have to keep working.”

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