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Paris Saint-Germain maintained their 100% winning start to the new season, beating Lille 3-1 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy to extend their remarkable unbeaten away run in Ligue 1 to 26 matches.
No side accumulated more points on their own turf in Ligue 1 than Lille last term, with just one defeat coming from their prior 15 home league games. They’d failed to win any of the prior six league head-to-heads, however, and Luis Enrique’s men were straight onto the front foot again here as Ousmane Dembele was twice denied by Lucas Chevalier in the opening stages.
Those saves so nearly paid dividends for the hosts when Edon Zhegrova’s cutback found Bafode Diakite in the box, but the defender’s effort came back off the post. Having survived that scare, the Parisians would soon open the scoring from the penalty spot. Alexsandro’s reckless tackle on Dembele inside the box left the referee no choice but to award a spot-kick, and Vitinha stepped up to stroke home from 12 yards in nonchalant fashion.
PSG’s lead was doubled within three minutes of the deadlock being broken, with the champions carving their hosts open on the counter, allowing Marco Asensio to slip Bradley Barcola in, and the Frenchman made no mistake in curling home a goal that gave Bruno Genesio’s men a mountain to climb if they were to get back into the game. And while the Mastiffs were a more positive outfit following the restart, it was the visitors who continued to look more dangerous.
Chevalier continued to bail his defence out, making a sharp reflex save with his leg to deny Asensio before cleaning up Barcola’s tame effort. The introduction of Jonathan David and PSG old boy Thomas Meunier swung the momentum and put Lille on top, and that pressure eventually told as Zhegrova arrowed a low strike into the bottom corner from range to halve the hosts’ deficit. That set up a grandstand finish, and within four minutes of equalizing Lille thought they’d grabbed an equalizer through Tiago Santos, though their celebrations were cut short by the offside flag.
That proved something of a false dawn as PSG battened down the hatches, and eventually put the game beyond sight when Randal Kolo Muani netted their third in stoppage time. Desire Doue’s industry to win the ball back was rewarded as his cross was nodded in by Kolo Muani, securing a victory that saw them win their first three league games for the sixth time in 10 seasons.
