Twitter explodes as Messi loses penalty shootout in Coupe de France exit

PSG arguably won the summer transfer window when they acquired Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Achraf Hakimi. Their extraordinary summer haul was bound to bring with it a fair share of expectations, and crashing out of the Coupe de France as early as Round of 16 was perhaps not one of them.

The French giants were stunningly knocked out of the competition following their defeat at the hands of Nice, who won the match 6-5 on penalties.

Although PSG fielded a strong team, they simply failed to find the back of the net in normal time or in extra time as the game ended 0-0, requiring a penalty shootout. Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe scored their respective penalties, but they proved to be insufficient when youngster Xavi Simons missed the side's last penalty of the night.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino was understandably disappointed by the result as shared his thoughts in a post-match interview with PSGTV. He admitted that his players were gutted about the defeat but stressed that focus needs to quickly shift onto the next match. He said:

"We are very disappointed, obviously, to lose on penalties. I think we were the better team overall, but not enough to get the victory. Penalties are always a lottery and tonight it wasn’t our night.

"Sum up the Coupe de France campaign? It’s not easy, because there were a lot of good things. We are very disappointed tonight, and now we need to try and be positive, even though it’s not easy and look forward and be strong for the next game.

"Of course the players are disappointed, like everyone, but on Wednesday we begin to prepare the next game and to be as good as possible."

Notably, this was Lionel Messi's first ever penalty shootout at club level, having previously been in six with Argentina. Of those six, Lionel Messi had lost three. Despite many fans expecting a routine victory for PSG last night, the Parisian club will play no more part in the domestic competition, thereby resulting in one less winnable trophy as they desperately seek to validate their summer business with silverware.

The shocking result elicited reactions from all around the world as fans took to social media to express their opinions. Twitter, for one, was set ablaze with varying reactions. Without further ado, here is a look at some of the

Best reactions to Lionel Messi and PSG crashing out of the Coupe de France