Pochettino: Mbappe guaranteed me PSG would beat Barcelona

Dazzling dribbling ability. Pinpoint finishing. Otherworldly speed. And, apparently, an expert prognosticator.

Kylian Mbappe's skill set has no bounds.

The young Frenchman was unstoppable on Tuesday, scoring a stunning hat-trick to power Paris Saint-Germain to a dominant 4-1 victory in their Champions League last-16 encounter with Barcelona. After the one-sided contest, manager Mauricio Pochettino revealed the 22-year-old made him a guarantee the previous night.

"The best players always have absolute confidence. He was feeling calm," Pochettino told reporters after the match, as quoted by Tom Allnutt of Agence France-Presse. "He said to me yesterday, 'how many times have you won at Camp Nou?' I said once with Espanyol. He told me: 'tomorrow you'll win a second.' That's why he's a top player."

The World Cup winner certainly backed up the talk.

Mbappe also praised Pochettino in the wake of Tuesday's triumph, and, frighteningly, said PSG have yet to play their best under the Argentine, who only assumed his position on the touchline last month.

"The coach has done a marvellous job since he arrived but he has also carried on the work done by Thomas Tuchel who had done an extraordinary job taking us to the final (last season)," Mbappe said.

"Things have been a bit disrupted for him because he had (COVID-19), not to make excuses, but we are improving. We are not yet at our peak. Today was great but we will keep trying to make progress so that we can repeat this type of performance."