PARIS:
Paris Saint-Germain are on the brink of winning another French Ligue 1 title after crushing Lyon 4-1 on Sunday, the same scoreline by which they beat Barcelona in the Champions League in midweek.
All the goals came in the first half at the Parc des Princes, with a Nemanja Matic own goal and a Lucas Beraldo effort having PSG two ahead inside six minutes.
Goncalo Ramos then scored twice either side of an Ernest Nuamah strike as the Parisians cruised to victory despite the rested Kylian Mbappe spending the whole evening on the bench.
PSG, who have not lost a Ligue 1 game since September, are now 11 points clear of Monaco in second with just five matches remaining.
It means that they will secure a 10th French title in 12 seasons if they win at Lorient in a rearranged game on Wednesday and Monaco fail to beat Lille at the same time.
“I’m very happy with the result, with the match, and with the week,” PSG coach Luis Enrique told broadcaster Amazon Prime.
He rested Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele among five changes to the side that started in last Tuesday’s 4-1 win away to Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.
“After the match in Barcelona, you never know how it’s going to be, but I think the team was extremely precise and I am very confident and very happy.”
Lyon have enjoyed a remarkable revival in the last few months under new coach Pierre Sage and are still hoping to qualify for Europe after sitting bottom of the table at the end of November.
However, they were blown away as Matic diverted Marco Asensio’s cutback into his own net and Brazilian defender Beraldo converted at a corner to make it 2-0 after six minutes.
Ramos headed in Achraf Hakimi’s cross to make it 3-0 just after the half-hour mark, although Ghanaian starlet Nuamah came in from the right flank to pull one back for Lyon soon after.
Ramos restored PSG’s three-goal cushion by finishing off a fine move just before the break for his 13th of the season in all competitions.
That rounded off the scoring, and whatever happens in midweek PSG will hope to be confirmed as title winners before travelling to face Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on May 1.
Lyon are a point away from seventh position, which will be enough to qualify for Europe if they fail to beat PSG when the teams meet again in the French Cup final at the end of May.
Monaco moved up into second place by winning 2-0 earlier away at Brest in a battle of two teams chasing Champions League qualification.
Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria and Japan’s Takumi Minamino got their goals, either side of half-time.
Monaco held on for the victory despite having both Eliesse Ben Seghir and Wilfried Singo sent off in stoppage time.
A third straight win for the principality side leaves them primed to go on and secure automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League, a competition they have not graced since 2018/19.
They are two points above Brest and three ahead of fourth-placed Lille, who bounced back from their midweek Europa Conference League exit on penalties to Aston Villa by beating Strasbourg 1-0.
Canada’s Jonathan David scored the only goal of the game to take his tally in Ligue 1 this season to 17.
The team finishing fourth will enter next season’s Champions League in the preliminary rounds.
Marseille needed a stoppage-time goal by Cameroonian striker Faris Moumbagna to grab a point in a 2-2 draw at Toulouse.
Moumbagna had also scored on Thursday as Marseille overcame Benfica in a penalty shoot-out to reach the Europa League semi-finals.
However, they have now failed to win in four league games and sit ninth in the table, meaning it may well be that they have to win the Europa League in order to qualify for Europe again next season.
Jordan’s Mousa Al-Tamari netted a late winner as Montpellier won 2-1 at Reims, while Metz moved out of the relegation zone by winning 1-0 at Le Havre.
The Normandy team dropped into the bottom three in their place.
