Kylian Mbappe scored and Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a penalty as Paris Saint-Germain surged eight factors clear on the prime of Ligue 1 on Sunday with a 2-0 victory over final season’s runners-up Lens. Bradley Barcola gave PSG the lead together with his second aim for the French champions after Donnarumma had saved out an early spot-kick from Przemyslaw Frankowski on the Stade Bollaert. Lens are a far cry from the group that completed some extent behind PSG final time period, however their dwelling type stays sturdy they usually had an 11-match unbeaten run snapped simply earlier than the winter break.
Nevertheless their hopes of preventing again suffered a crucial blow when Jonathan Gradit was despatched off late within the first half following a VAR assessment for bringing down Barcola because the final defender.
With the main focus intensifying on Mbappe and his future plans, Lens had the possibility to strike first as Danilo fouled Elye Wahi inside the world after simply 5 minutes.
Frankowski drilled his kick proper down the center however the large Donnarumma stayed put and blocked the ball together with his knees.
The Italy goalkeeper then batted away a shot from Wahi earlier than wonderful defensive work from Danilo helped spring Mbappe to arrange Barcola.
Mbappe strode ahead and waited patiently to slide Barcola in behind the Lens defence, the younger winger clipping an unerring end previous Brice Samba from a difficult angle.
Gradit’s purple card solely added to the problem for Lens, who threatened intermittently within the second half with out unduly troubling Donnarumma.
Mbappe put the end result past doubt within the 89th minute, working onto a move from Ousmane Dembele and driving low past Samba into the far nook.
PSG are eight factors away from Good, who misplaced 2-0 at Rennes on Saturday. Brest are one other level adrift, whereas Monaco dropped to fourth after taking place 3-1 at dwelling to Reims.
Brest on the rise
Earlier on Sunday, Brest climbed to 3rd with a 2-0 dwelling victory 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 seal a sixth win in seven video games for Eric Roy’s facet.
They moved above Monaco and to inside some extent of Good after each these sides misplaced on Saturday, and sit in an computerized Champions League qualification spot.
“We’re going by means of patch, we’ve got to take advantage of it. We all know in soccer issues occur in a short time, a method or one other,” mentioned Roy, the one-time Sunderland midfielder.
Lille eased to a 3-0 win over Lorient with targets from Jonathan David, Remy Cabella and Edon Zhegrova. Clermont’s 2-1 victory at Nantes pushed Lorient to the foot of the desk.
Toulouse picked up 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, the brother of former France goalkeeper Hugo, put Le Havre forward with Emmanuel Sabbi and Christopher Operi putting both facet of a aim from Alexandre Lacazette.
Lyon had Jake O’Brien despatched off within the first half and completed with 9 males as Duje Caleta-Automobile additionally noticed purple, their mini-revival abruptly halted after ending 2023 with three wins in a row.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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