Paris Saint-Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino was delighted with hat-trick hero Mauro Icardi's impact in Wednesday's 5-0 Coupe de France win after a month out with injury.
Icardi marked his first start for PSG in a month with a treble as they swept aside Angers to qualify for the Coupe de France semi-finals.
The Argentine, who spent last season on loan at PSG from Inter before signing permanently, has endured a difficult season impacted by injury.
"I'm glad Mauro scored three goals tonight," Pochettino said. "Anytime he's on the pitch, he has the opportunity to score.
"He's coming back from injury, I'm very happy with what he did."
Icardi has battled the likes of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Moise Kean and Angel Di Maria for a regular spot when fit.
Pochettino would not be drawn on whether Wednesday's hat-trick would help the Argentine's cause in a bid to start in Saturday's Ligue 1 clash with Metz.
"We will see Saturday who will start," Pochettino said.
"It is always difficult for a player to suffer from muscle damage and to be held back by health problems. Even more so in a season of difficult circumstances like this."
Icardi's goals take his season tally to 11 in all competitions, having made 21 appearances.
"I felt confident," Icardi said. "I'd already scored against Saint-Etienne and I was very confident that I could come back after a tough injury hit year.
"I'm slowly getting back to form and scoring goals is always important for strikers."
Luis Enrique confident in free-scoring PSG despite Ramos setback
Paris Saint-Germain head coach Luis Enrique is confident his players can adapt in the absence of Goncalo Ramos to continue their impressive start to the season.
PSG have taken to life without Kylian Mbappe with ease, scoring 10 goals in their first two Ligue 1 fixtures, equalling their highest tally after two games played (also in 2022-23).
The Parisiens have welcomed four new faces during the transfer window, signing Joao Neves, Desire Doue, William Pacho and Matvei Safonov.
Luis Enrique was dealt a blow, however, in PSG's opener against Le Harve, with striker Ramos forced off with an injury that will cause him to miss three months.
But in his absence, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele have starred in front of goal, with Luis Enrique now focused on bringing the best out of the players available.
"We want to sign players, and their prices were very high. I have the players I have, I'm happy with their level, now I have to develop their potential," Luis Enrique said.
"As a nine, we can play with [Marco] Asensio, Dembele, Randal Kolo Muani, Barcola, Ramos, Warren [Zaire-Emery], [Achraf] Hakimi, Vitinha, Fabian [Ruiz], Neves... that's 10. It's the same with the defenders.
"I've got some very versatile players, which fits in with the plan we wanted for this team. Pacho, Doue and Neves — they can play in lots of different roles... so I have a lot of options in my team."
PSG will seek to claim an elusive Champions League trophy once again this season, but have been handed a difficult draw in the competition's new league phase.
Luis Enrique's side will face Girona in their first game in the competition, but will also square off against European heavyweights Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid.
"My impression of the draw is that it's a new competition, a new format," Luis Enrique said.
"It's obvious that statistically we were the least favoured but I can't judge this competition because we don't know it.
"We'll say that this is a competition that we're going to try out and we've been the least lucky."
Champions League holders Real Madrid to face Liverpool and handed Dortmund reunion
Champions League holders Real Madrid will face Borussia Dortmund in a rematch of last season's final following Thursday's revamped draw.
The new league phase format sees each of the 36 teams play eight games, four at home and four away.
And Madrid, who beat Dortmund in the final at Wembley in June, will go up against BVB at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Carlo Ancelotti's team are also set to face Liverpool at Anfield in one of the headline clashes of the new-look draw, while they will play Milan and Europa League winners Atalanta.
Liverpool have failed to win each of their last eight meetings with Madrid (D1 L7), their longest winless run against an opponent in European competition.
Manchester City and Arsenal will both go up against Paris Saint-Germain, while Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen count Inter, Liverpool, Milan and Atletico Madrid among their eight opponents.
PSG will also take on Bayern Munich, who in turn have to face Barcelona away from home. The French club, meanwhile, have won just one of their six Champions League meetings with Man City.
As well as taking on PSG, Arsenal also have a clash with Inter to relish. The Gunners' only previous away game against Internazionale was a 5-1 win in November 2003, with that season being the last time the Gunners won the Premier League title.
Aston Villa fans have a pair of home matches against heavyweights Bayern and Juventus to look forward to.
Alonso seeking improvements as Leverkusen complete Mukiele signing
Xabi Alonso wants Bayer Leverkusen to click through the gears after they edged out Jena in the DFB-Pokal.
Jonas Hofmann's header was enough to send holders Leverkusen into the next round with a 1-0 win on Wednesday.
Alonso's side only allowed their lower-league opponents to have six shots, but worryingly for the Bundesliga champions, those did accumulate to 1.04 expected goals (xG).
Indeed, Hamza Muqaj missed a golden opportunity for the hosts worth 0.75 xG in second-half stoppage time.
With RB Leipzig next up in the league, Alonso knows his team have to sharpen up.
"[We faced] a good opponent and it wasn't easy," said Alonso.
"We have to work on a few things, but we are in the next round and that's what counts. Now we go straight into preparing for the next league game."
Leverkusen did bolster their defensive options, though with the signing of Nordi Mukiele.
The versatile defender has joined on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, and could be in line to make his debut against his former club Leipzig on Saturday.
Odilon Kossounou, meanwhile, has left Leverkusen to sign for Atalanta, who beat Alonso's team in last season's Europa League final, on loan.
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