Kylian Mbappe wipes out Thierry Henry's long-held UCL record in win over Juventus

French football superstar Kylian Mbappe scored the opening goal for Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League 2022-23 opening game against Juventus on Wednesday night and stormed his way into major record books. Mbappe scored a brilliant solo game for PSG, 13 minutes into the away clash at the Juventus Stadium. He collected the ball around 30 yards from Juventus’ goal, as Federico Gatti tried to close him down and tried to stop Mbappe by pulling his shirt. 

However, the Italian defender’s attempt was shrugged off by the Frenchman, before the latter breezed past another opponent player. Mbappe then took the aim from the edge of the penalty area and finished a perfect right-footed goal. With the goal, Mbappe broke a major Champions League goal record previously held by another French footballer Thierry Henry. 

Kylian Mbappe becomes youngest to reach 40-goal milestone

At the age of 23 years and 317 days, Mbappe became the youngest French footballer to score 40 goals in Tier 1 of European football. At the same time, he also became the youngest player overall to score 40 goals in the history of the Champions League. This record was previously held by Mbappe’s PSG mate and Argentine great Lionel Messi, who scored his 40th UCL goals at the age of 24 years and 130 days.

The PSG star's goal tally in the Champions League 2022-23 now stands at seven goals, which makes him the joint-top scorer in the tournament this year. Alongside Mbappe, Mohamed Salah has also scored seven goals for Liverpool this season. Robert Lewandowski, Erling Haaland and Mehdi Taremi have scored five goals each in the UCL 2022-23 season.

Mbappe scores 189th goal for PSG

Interestingly, only two other French footballers have ever surpassed the figure of 40 UCL goals. In his club football career, Thiery Henry scored 50 Champions League goals, while Real Madrid superstar Karim Benzema leads the chart with 86 goals to his credit. Meanwhile, Messi is closing in on the all-time record of scoring the most assists in the tournament, which currently stands at 42.

This was Mbappe’s 189th goal for the reigning Ligue 1 champions in just 235 appearances. He has also assisted PSG on 93 occasions since joining the team in 2018. The 23-year-old Frenchman has already scored 18 goals and assisted five times in 18 games across competitions this year.

Coming back to the PSG vs Juventus match, Mbappe’s goal handed the visitors a 1-0 lead before Leonardo Bonucci scored the equalizer in the 39th minute. Nuno Mendes scored PSG’s winning goal on Wednesday in the 69th minute. Having already qualified for the UCL 2022-23 knockout stage, PSG finished 2nd in the Group H points table with four wins and two assists.