‘We were up against the best players in the world and they proved it tonight’

France’s Paris Saint-Germain defeated Israel’s Maccabi Haifa 7-2 on Tuesday with Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi both scoring twice. 

Neymar was on target too, and the Brazilian player forced an own goal from Maccabi defender Sean Goldberg before Carlos Soler completed the rout. The Parisians netted seven times in a Champions League game for the first time since November 2017.

The win means PSG have qualified from Group H along with Benfica, although it will go down to next week’s final matchday to decide who advances in first place and therefore benefits from a theoretically kinder draw in the next round.

Maccabi Haifa, who saw Senegalese defender Abdoulaye Seck score both of their goals, are eliminated along with Juventus but the Israeli champions could still bump the Italian giants to third place and Europa League soccer after the break for the World Cup.

“I prefer to lose 7-2 than 4-0 playing bad football,” said Maccabi coach Barak Bakhar.

“We were up against the best players in the world and they proved it tonight.”

The upcoming World Cup in Qatar is surely a factor in the outstanding early-season form of Messi and Neymar in particular, and along with Mbappe they turned on the style to leave Maccabi regularly looking dazed and confused in defense.

Earlier in September, Maccabi Haifa scored its first goal against Paris-Saint Germain in a 3-1 loss for the Group Stage, played in Haifa’s Sammy Ofer stadium. The Israeli team then surprised fans with a 2-0 home victory over Italian club Juventus in October.

It was the third time that the Israeli soccer club has made it to the Champions League.