NICE, France, Oct 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Angel Di Maria grabbed two goals
while Kylian Mbappe struck on his return from injury as Paris Saint-Germain
won 4-1 at Nice on Friday to surge five points clear at the top of Ligue 1.
PSG lost Neymar and the influential Idrissa Gueye to injury over the
international break while Mbappe and Edinson Cavani were only fit enough to
make the bench for the trip to the Cote d’Azur.
“At the start of a run of six very intensive matches, it’s always good to
start with a win,” said PSG coach Thomas Tuchel.
“We had a good first half, I was happy. We had chances to control the match
but at the start of the second half, we forgot to close it out.”
A spectacular triple save by Walter Benitez kept out Presnel Kimpembe and
Abdou Diallo in the opening minutes at the Allianz Riviera but PSG soon made
the breakthrough.
Di Maria raced on to a first-time pass from fellow Argentine Mauro Icardi
before calmly guiding beyond Benitez in the Nice goal on 15 minutes.
Only Mbappe has been involved in more goals in France this year than Di
Maria, who duly doubled his tally six minutes later with a sublime lob from
an unfavourable angle.
Marquinhos replaced PSG captain Thiago Silva at half-time and headed
against the crossbar at a corner, but a mistake from the Brazilian presented
Nice a lifeline on 67 minutes.
An ill-advised attempt at chesting down a cross allowed Kasper Dolberg to
tee up Ignatius Ganago to blast home via the underside of the bar.
Any chance Patrick Vieira’s side had of salvaging a result effectively
evaporated though with the dismissal of Wylan Cyprien and Christophe Herelle
in a matter of minutes.
Cyprien was shown a second yellow card for dissent with Herelle sent off
following a VAR review for a petulant slap on Leandro Paredes.
Tuchel threw on Mbappe, restricted to just two substitute appearances since
August, for the final eight minutes and PSG made the most of their two-man
advantage.
Mbappe drove low under Benitez to claim his first goal since August 11 and
then laid on an assist for Icardi to tap home in stoppage time.
Nantes could trim PSG’s lead back to two points on Saturday when they head
to bottom side Metz, while Rudi Garcia begins his reign as Lyon manager
against lowly Dijon.
Garcia, 55, must win over underwhelmed fans and turn around a season that
is already threatening to go off the rails after taking charge of Lyon on
Monday.
He has been tasked with ending a miserable run that has left them
languishing in 14th place after nine games, already seven points away from
the Champions League places for which they are expected to challenge.