Kylian Mbappe scored and Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a penalty as Paris Saint-Germain moved eight factors clear on the high of Ligue 1 with a 2-0 win over final season's runners-up Lens on Sunday.
Bradley Barcola put PSG forward together with his second purpose for the French champions after Donnarumma prevented an early penalty from Przemyslaw Frankowski on the Stade Bollaert.
Mbappe struck a minute from time together with his nineteenth league purpose of the season as PSG took full benefit of Good and Monaco's errors this weekend.
“I used to be glad with the entire match. I believe my workforce is aggressive each time and in the present day was no exception,” mentioned PSG coach Luis Enrique.
“You need insanity, however I would like management.”
Lens are a far cry from the workforce that completed a degree behind PSG final season, however their house kind stays robust they usually had an 11-match unbeaten run simply earlier than the winter break.
Nonetheless, their hopes of combating again suffered a vital blow when Jonathan Gradit was despatched off late within the first half following a VAR evaluation for bringing down Barcola because the final defender.
With the main focus more and more on Mbappe and his future plans, Lens had the chance to strike first when Danilo fouled Elye Wahi within the space after simply 5 minutes.
Frankowski despatched his kick all the way in which down the center, however the large Donnarumma stood nonetheless and blocked the ball together with his knees.
The Italian goalkeeper then punched away Wahi's shot earlier than some wonderful defensive work from Danilo Mbappe helped set Barcola up.
Mbappe walked ahead and waited patiently for Barcola to slide in behind the Lens defence, with the younger winger firing a flawless end previous Brice Samba from an ungainly angle.
Gradit's purple card solely elevated the problem for Lens, who sometimes threatened within the second half with out inflicting pointless issues for Donnarumma.
Mbappe put the end result past doubt within the 89th minute, operating onto an Ousmane Dembele go and driving low previous Samba into the far nook.
PSG is eight factors forward of Good, which misplaced 2-0 in Rennes on Saturday. Brest are one other level behind, whereas Monaco dropped to fourth place after a 3-1 defeat at house to Reims.
– Brest on the rise –
Earlier on Sunday, Brest climbed to 3rd place with a 2-0 house win over Montpellier to proceed their shock push for European soccer.
Hugo Magnetti opened the scoring simply after half-time in Brittany and substitute Jeremy Le Douaron struck in stoppage time to make sure a sixth win in seven video games for Eric Roy's facet.
They’ve moved above Monaco and are actually robotically in a Champions League qualifying spot.
“We’re going by means of an excellent interval, we now have to make the very best of it. We all know that by some means in soccer issues occur in a short time,” mentioned Roy, the previous Sunderland midfielder.
Lille recorded a 3-0 victory over Lorient with objectives from Jonathan David, Remy Cabella and Edon Zhegrova. Clermont's 2-1 win over Nantes pushed Lorient to the foot of the desk.
Toulouse took solely their third win of the season after beating Metz 1-0, leaving Lyon within the relegation play-off spot after they misplaced 3-1 at Le Havre.
Gautier Lloris, brother of former France goalkeeper Hugo, put Le Havre forward, whereas Emmanuel Sabbi and Christopher Operai scored both facet after a purpose from Alexandre Lacazette.
Lyon had Jake O'Brien despatched off within the first half and ended up with 9 males when Duje Caleta-Automobile additionally noticed purple. Their mini-revival got here to an abrupt halt after they ended 2023 with three straight wins.