Paris Saint-Germain Extend Lead at Ligue 1 Summit With Victory Over Lille
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defeated Lille 3-1 on Sunday to establish a dominating two-point lead and solidify their place at the top of Ligue 1.
This important victory over a rival Champions League contender highlights PSG’s outstanding 2024–25 season opening run.
After overcoming their toughest test of the season so far on Sunday—a 3-1 victory away to fellow Champions League candidates Lille—Paris Saint-Germain leads Ligue 1 by two points already. On an oppressively hot night in northern France, Vitinha’s penalty put PSG up, which Bradley Barcola doubled. At the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Edon Zhegrova gave the home team hope with a goal back in the second half, but Randal Kolo Muani’s header in stoppage time sealed the victory for the reigning French champions.
After losing their all-time top scorer Kylian Mbappe, Luis Enrique’s team seems to be adjusting well. PSG has won all three of their season’s games and scored 13 goals thus far.
With a two-point lead over Marseille, Nantes, Monaco, and Lens going into the September international break, they will need to do something quite extraordinary to unseat them from the top spot. The Spanish head coach of PSG praised his team’s “magnificent” start to the season.
“This was an away game, with all the difficulty that comes with that, against a team who have qualified for the Champions League and played more matches than us,” he said.
“Obviously there are things we need to improve but this was a good test.”
Champions League Level
When Tiago Santos scored, but VAR disallowed the goal for a very tight offside, Lille coach Bruno Genesio was left to lament his choice to deny his team a late equalizer.
Before the penalty, the game was fairly evenly balanced. However, since these are Champions League games—the actual pinnacle of sports—you must truly prevent errors and exercise even greater clinical judgment, Genesio stated.
After overcoming adversity to advance to the league stage of Europe’s premier club competition, Lille may be excused for feeling the effects of their away Champions League play-off second leg against Slavia Prague in midweek.
Nevertheless, in the first half, they came dangerously close to taking the lead when Bafode Diakite struck the post following a Zhegrova cutback. However, just after the break, PSG won a penalty after Ousmane Dembele was fouled in the area.
After Vitinha’s penalty shot was converted, Barcola and Marco Asensio swapped passes, allowing Barcola to score his fourth goal of the year on the 36th minute and make the score 2-0.
Twelve minutes from the end, Zhegrova’s low shot from outside the box gave Lille optimism as they continued to press after the interval. When Santos scored, they believed they had leveled the score, but the celebrations were cut short by the offside flag.
In stoppage time, Kolo Muani secured PSG’s victory by heading home from a cross from recently acquired Desire Doue. Midway through September, PSG will host Girona to kick off their Champions League campaign. In addition, the team will play in the league phase against teams like Manchester City and Arsenal.
Lille, on the other hand, will get to play Sporting in Lisbon before hosting Mbappe’s Real Madrid and Juventus in the upcoming weeks. On Saturday, Nantes defeated Montpellier by the same score away from home, while Marseille defeated Montpellier 3-1 at Toulouse thanks to two goals from Mason Greenwood.
Przemyslaw Frankowski’s stoppage-time penalty gave Monaco a point in the principality as the two teams drew 1-1 on Sunday. Late in the game, Denis Zakaria had put Monaco ahead, but he handled in the box, allowing Lens to escape with a draw.
After placing second in Ligue 1 the previous season, Monaco has qualified for the Champions League. On September 19, the principality team will host Barcelona to start the season.
In other news, Nice defeated Angers 4-1 on Sunday, their first victory of the season, thanks to two goals from Evann Guessand. Angers had lost their previous three games since rejoining the top division.
Le Havre overcame a goal deficit to upset Auxerre 3-1 in Normandy, while Reims overcame an early goal deficit to defeat Rennes 2-1 thanks to goals from Ivory Coast forward Oumar Diakite and Japanese forward Junya Ito.
