Paris Saint-Germain regained the lead in Ligue 1 by beating Nice (2-1) on Saturday’s Round 9 and overtaking Marseille, who won 3-0 at Angers the day before.
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With a fortnight to go before the Clasico PSG-OM, the two holy monsters of French football occupy the top two places, with the capital club two lengths ahead (25 points against 23). Promising for the duel on October 16th!
A superb direct free-kick from Lionel Messi (29′), his first for PSG, gave Paris the lead before Gaëtan Laborde equalized shortly after the restart (47′).
Kylian Mbappé put PSG (83rd) back in the lead after the hour, the world champion had made way for Hugo Ekitike for his first term. But the youngster from Reims, who had his back to goal too often, couldn’t complain.
PSG didn’t play their dazzling August football but continued their streak.
Christophe Galtier’s side remain unbeaten in L1 with eight wins and a draw before heading to Lisbon for day three of the Champions League on Wednesday to play Benfica.
The only drop of bitterness was the injury-out of Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches (88th), a good quarter of an hour after he was substituted on (76th).
Nice, for their part, remain stuck in the second part of the table before taking on Slovacko in Thursday’s Europa League conference in Uherske Hradiste in the Czech Republic.
In the afternoon, Rennes won in Alsace, beating Strasbourg (3-1), still without a win this season.
The Bretons are in 5th place awaiting Sunday’s games, which will feature two great classics of the French championship, Monaco-Nantes (5:05 p.m.) and Lens-Lyon (8:45 p.m.).