Three days before the reception of Juventus Turin in the Champions League, PSG ensures in Ligue 1. Undefeated since the start of the season, the Parisians dominated FC Nantes at La Beaujoire (0-3), Saturday September 3, without difficulty, especially after the expulsion of Fabio. Christophe Galtier had to manage the form of his players, placing Neymar on the bench at the start of the game, and replacing Mbappé on the hour mark. Thanks to this success, PSG regained the lead in the standings of the Ligue 1, level on points with Marseille.
Beaten 4-0 in the Champions Trophy at the start of the season, FC Nantes probably wanted to avoid the same Parisian domination in the league. Uninhibited, Antoine Kombouaré’s men showed it by multiplying the chances from the first quarter of an hour. But while Moutoussamy and Fabio saw their attempts miss the mark, Kylian Mbappé was more effective in deceiving Alban Lafont after 18 minutes, well served by Lionel Messi.
The Argentinian, very strong since the start of the season, delivered his 19th and 20th assists in Ligue 1 on Saturday evening, in 32 games played since his arrival. Both addressed to Mbappé, they symbolize the good connection between the two stars on the ground. The two players, who already managed to find themselves at 11 against 11, benefited all the more from the numerical superiority of Paris after the expulsion of Fabio for a high tackle on Vitinha, who came out injured.
20 – Fastest players to reach 20 assists in Ligue 1 since Opta analyzed the competition (2006/07):
Angel Di Maria (31 games)
Lionel Messi (32)
Neymar (37)Eternal. #FCNPSG pic.twitter.com/VvxGi5cBa0
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) September 3, 2022
While the Nantes residents had managed to shake up the Parisians a little at the start of the game, this red card changed the face of the match. PSG put their foot on the ball more, offering passing sequences to ten in the Nantes camp, while the Canaries had great difficulty getting out of their camp to bring danger to the goal of Gianluigi Donnarumma. Mbappé therefore took the opportunity to double the bet (54th), then Nuno Mendes scored his first goal in Parisian colors (68th).
“Paris was too strong today. We had a good start but being reduced to ten gave us a terrible handicap. It’s a shame, I think it kills the game a little bit, reacted Samuel Moutoussamy at the microphone of Canal+ after the meeting. “We wanted to do well to gain confidence before the European Cup. It’s a bit difficult but we will refocus quickly.” The people of Nantes will indeed face Olympiakos on Thursday in the Europa League, and the European Cup was also in the minds of Paris on Saturday evening.
Christophe Galtier tried to share playing time between his players as well as possible. “It’s a good result, I found us very serious and obviously, the fact of playing 11 against 10, it requires less organizations, so it allowed me to make important rotations. It is of course a physical plane”he explained at the microphone of Canal+. On the other hand, the Parisian coach will certainly have to do without a centerpiece in the midfield, since Vitinha suffers from a blow to the kneecap.