Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

PSG was able to come back from an early lead by Toulouse in a Saturday League fixture thanks to a Hakimi equalizer and a Lionel Messi lead. Branco van den Boomen scored the opener for mid-table Toulouse in the 20th minute, then Achraf Hakimi drew PSG level before half-time. Neymar and Mbappe were absent due to their injuries. Messi later gave PSG the lead with a left-footed strike around the hour mark. Mbappe will miss PSG's next game in the Coupe de France next week, and the Champions League last-16 first leg against Bayern Munich on February 14th after being ruled out for three weeks with a thigh injury suffered in the 3-1 win at Montpellier on Wednesday. Achraf Hakimi was the player of the match - scoring one, setting up another goal, and still keeping the Toulouse attack at bay.

Sunday's Ligue 1 fixture between Lyon and PSG saw PSG triumph thanks to a Lionel Messi goal. Messi found the back of the net in the fifth minute of the game, thanks to a Neymar assist. With this goal, Lionel Messi now overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo as the player with the most non-penalty goals, despite having played 150 games less. Messi has now scored 672 non-penalty goals, and Cristiano Ronaldo, 671. Earlier this week, the Argentinian forward achieved another feat when he became the first player to score in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons, once more overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more goals in total - 699 goals in 941 games in all competitions for four different clubs, while Messi has scored 688 goals in 822 games in all competitions for two clubs - Barcelona and PSG.

A hat-trick of hat-tricks was the result produced by a scintillating Messi-Mbappe-Neymar trio versus Clermont on Saturday. Neymar and Mbappe each netted three times, with a trio of assists from Messi to achieve a 6-1 victory versus Clermont.  Messi's first assist came from the edge of the penalty area as he made a pass to Neymar who went on to score and give PSG a 1-0 lead. Messi leads the leagues with assists this season, with a total of 13 assists to his name. After the game, Mbappe told Canal Plus France: "The connection on the field with Messi and Neymar, it's a shame it's only happening now."

Ligue 1 leaders PSG comfortably beat Nantes on Saturday night 3-1, with Messi scoring his first goal in the French top flight at the Parc des Princes. Kylian Mbappe was first to etch his name onto the scoresheet after deflecting Leandro Paredes' shot into the net barely two minutes into the game. Nantes however equalized 20 minutes into the game with a goal from Randal Kolo Muani. Dennis Appiah gave PSG the lead once more by scoring an own goal against Nantes in the 81st minute. PSG keeper Keylor Navas was expulsed with a red card in the 65th minute for a nasty foul on Ludovic Blas, and  Sergio Rico  was brought in as replacement. Messi's goal came in the 87th minute as he took on a pass from Kylian Mbappe on the edge of the box and shot it into the net.  “I’m happy with this first goal, I really wanted it. I had several chances before in this match and in the previous matches,” said Messi. “I am very happy with this first goal in the league, I had already scored in the C

Six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has ended his mini goal drought at PSG as he scored on Tuesday night in a 2-0 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League group phase. PSG midfielder Idrissa Gueye gave PSG an early lead in the 8th minute, with Raheem Sterling and Bernado Silva coming close to equalizing for PSG as they hit the bar in succession. Messi's sublime goal from the edge of the box however cemented victory for the French.  Football pundit and former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand reacted on BT Sport as Messi took up a position on the floor behind a defensive wall to prevent Manchester City from surprising PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma with a low shot as City took a late free kick. He said: “No, no, no, no. You can’t. “It’s disrespectful, I wouldn’t have it. “If I was in that team, I’d have to say, ‘Listen, I’ll lay down for you.’ “Sorry, I couldn’t have him laying down like that. I can’t see it. “He don’t get his kit

Lionel Messi made his PSG debut against Reims on Sunday, applauded by most of the 21,000 fans in attendance. He replaced Neymar in the 65th minute for what could be the greatest substitution in history. The star for PSG that night was however Kylian Mbappe who scored a brace in what could be his final game in a PSG shirt, securing a 2-0 victory for PSG. Messi however struck records out of the field - his debut was the most-watched Ligue 1 fixture in the history of TV fixtures in France. In Spain, his debut averaged over 2 million viewers, making it the most-watched French football game in the country. Figures revealed show that the match had an average audience of 2.2 million viewers in Spain.  Kosmos Holding, Gerard Pique's company, secured the rights to Ligue 1 following Messi's move to Paris in August. Only Telecinco and Llanos in Spain secured access to Messi's debut, with a license from Kosmos. Llanos's Twitch channel avraged 2 million unique Spanish viewers, a

French prodigy Kylian Mbappe has once more reiterated his preference for Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi. He says he's inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo's career and not Messi's. He however explained his preference for Ronaldo's career. He said he believes it's too late for him to be a one-club man like Lionel Messi. As such, he thinks it's better to copy Cristiano Ronaldo instead. The PSG young star told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "It's already late for me to have a career like Messi. "Otherwise I should have stayed at Monaco. So, logically and without wanting to take anything away from Messi, I have to be inspired by Ronaldo's career." Ronaldo started his career at Sporting Lisbon where he spent just a season before being signed by Manchester United in 2003. He went on to Real Madrid in 2009 at a world record transfer fee of $103 million. In 2018, he made another transfer to Juventus, and is curently in his second season with th

Barcelona midfielder Arthur Melo is optimistic about a possible return of his countryman Neymar to Camp Nou. Arthur switched from Gremio to Barcelona ahead of this season at a €40 million transfer fee. After a €222 million transfer from Barcelona to PSG in the summer of 2017, Neymar helped PSG to a domestic treble. Neymar has been in great form with PSG this season as well, scoring 16 goals in 18 appearances, all competitions included. 11 of the goals scored by Neymar were recorded in 12 Ligue 1 games. The Brazilian playmaker is rumored to be unhappy in France, and could be leaving PSG sooner than expected.  Arthur told Mundo Deportivo , "I personally am praying for him to come because he is a star, it is indisputable, and I think that the better players the team have, the better."  "Personally, I am doing a lot of work to get him back, but he has his life, he knows what he's doing and I don't know how deep those negotiations are, if there are options