Monaco youngster, Kylian Mbappe’s helped the French side beat Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the rescheduled Champions League quarter-final tie in Germany.
In a match delayed by 24 hours after a bomb attack on the hosts’ bus, Mbappe diverted in Thomas Lemar’s cross before Sven Bender’s own goal made it 2-0.
Ousmane Dembele netted from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s flick to pull one back for Dortmund, but Mbappe curled home to restore the two-goal cushion before Shinji Kagawa added a late second for the hosts.
Kagawa showed great skill to dribble past Jemerson and slot in, and there was almost even more late drama when Aubameyang headed over from yards out.
But Monaco survived and will take a slender advantage into a highly-anticipated second leg at Stade Louis II on 19 April.
Monaco’s free-wheeling attack has scored 88 goals in 31 Ligue 1 games this season, and Dortmund were the latest to be disorientated by their movement and slick passing.
Mbappe gave early notice of his muscularity and pace as Sokratis Papastathopoulos gave away an early penalty attempting to get back on the right side. The Greek was relieved to see Fabinho drag the spot-kick wide, but the let-off was brief.
Less than three minutes later, Bernardo Silva broke free and picked out the overlapping Lemar with a sublime outside-of-the-foot pass. The full-back’s cross from a prime shooting position seemed to catch his team-mates by surprise, but the ball ricocheted off Mbappe’s thigh and rolled in.
Bender – playing in defence after Marc Bartra fractured his wrist in Tuesday’s bomb attack – contrived to head Andrea Raggi’s cross past his own goalkeeper for the second, but it was the third that fuelled the growing hype around Mbappe.
The 18-year-old’s emergence has been sudden – he played only 25 minutes in the group stage – but he showed the anticipation and composure of a veteran as he pounced on Lukasz Piszczek’s under-hit backpass, raced in on goal and barely broke stride in burying a curling shot into the top corner from 20 yards.
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