PSG experiences an evening full of setbacks, but manages to strengthen its lead


Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 10:55 PM• Sam Vreeswijk • Last update: 23:01

Paris Saint-Germain strengthened their lead in Ligue 1 on Wednesday evening thanks to a 1-3 win over Montpellier. However, it did not go very well, as Kylian Mbappé and Sergio Ramos were injured, the former missed two penalties and PSG saw two hits rejected. Due to the victory, PSG is now five points clear of number two Olympique Marseille, which passed RC Lens (0-1 defeat against OGC Nice) in the ranking.

PSG started with two other players compared to the league game with Stade Reims, which was drawn 1-1 last Sunday. Neymar (because of ‘muscle fatigue’) and Juan Bernat were missing, so that Nuno Mendes and Danilo Pereira were allowed to show it from the first minute. Trainer Galtier also did not have access to Marco Verratti, who was suspended because of his red card against Reims.

The first half was full of setbacks for the visitors. First of all, PSG were awarded a penalty after a foul by Christopher Julin on Ramos, but Mbappé saw his penalty saved by goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte. Mbappé was disappointed, but was allowed to take over the penalty kick, because a Montpellier player had entered the penalty area too early. The PSG star then tried in the other corner, but was again met by Lecomte. The rebound then hopelessly shot Mbappé over.

Not much later, the lightning fast attacker again had to deal with a setback. After he was hit hard by Léo Leroy during a passing action, he had to stop the fight injured. Mbappé seemed to grab the upper leg. In addition to Mbappé, Sergio Ramos also had to be replaced in the first half by a head injury, after colliding hard with an opponent in a head duel. As if PSG hadn’t had enough setbacks already, a goal from Lionel Messi was also disallowed for offside ten minutes before the break.

PSG also saw a goal rejected at the start of the second half. Achraf Hakimi shot the ball beautifully into the cross, but it was preceded offside. Not much later, the visitors finally scored the first goal that was approved. Hakimi ran into goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte, but in the rebound Hugo Ekitike headed the ball to Ruíz, who scored the 0-1. After both teams came close to scoring the second goal of the match, Messi doubled the lead in the 72nd minute. The Argentinian received the ball after a beautiful pass from Ruíz, after which he put the 0-2 on the board. Arnaud Nordin made it exciting just before time with a long shot, but sixteen-year-old Warren Zaïre-Emery decided the game definitively from a counter in injury time.

No. Team m W G v +/- Pnt
1 Paris Saint Germain 21 16 3 2 36 51
2 Olympic Marseille 21 14 4 3 25 46
3 RC Lens 21 13 6 2 18 45
4 AS Monaco 21 12 5 4 17 41
5 Stade Rennes 21 12 4 5 18 40
6 Lille OSC 21 10 5 6 9 35
7 Lorient 21 10 5 6 1 35
8 OGC Nice 21 8 7 6 4 31
9 Clermont 21 8 6 7 -3 30
10 Olympic Lyon 21 8 5 8 7 29
11 Reims 21 6 11 4 0 29
12 Toulouse 21 8 5 8 -1 29
13 Nantes 21 4 10 7 -5 22
14 Montpellier 21 6 2 13 -12 20
15 Stadium Brest 21 4 7 10 -11 19
16 Troyes AC 21 4 7 10 -13 19
17 AC Ajaccio 21 5 3 13 -19 18
18 Strasbourg 21 2 9 10 -14 15
19 A. J. Auxerre 21 3 4 14 -28 13
20 Angers 21 2 2 17 -29 8