A KYLIAN MBAPPE penalty proved decisive as Paris Saint-Germain beat bitter rivals Marseille 2-1 on Sunday, meaning they could clinch the Ligue 1 title this week.
Mbappe converted from the spot in first-half stoppage time after the referee awarded a penalty for handball on a VAR review, restoring PSG’s lead following Neymar’s early opener and a Duje Caleta-Car equaliser.
PSG are 15 points clear of second-placed Marseille with six games remaining and Mauricio Pochettino’s side — who also have a far superior goal difference — stand poised to reclaim the trophy they relinquished to Lille last season.
If Marseille fail to beat Nantes on Wednesday then PSG will officially secure their eighth Ligue 1 title in 10 seasons if they can better their nearest rivals’ result when they face Angers.
Despite the apparently high stakes for the biggest fixture in French football, there was a distinctly flat atmosphere at the Parc des Princes.
Authorities banned Marseille fans from the game over concerns of possible violence, a recurring them in France in recent months.
Meanwhile PSG ‘ultras’, the most vocal members of their support, have decided to stay silent until the end of the season in protest at the club’s management and at results in a campaign marked by the Champions League last-16 exit to Real Madrid.
In any case, a record-equalling 10th French championship in their history has never really been in doubt for PSG, even before their current run of three straight wins in which Neymar and Mbappe have each scored six times.
The Brazilian gave PSG a 12th-minute lead, meeting a flighted ball forward by Marco Verratti and lobbing stranded goalkeeper Pau Lopez.
Marseille drew level just after the half-hour as Gianluigi Donnarumma made a mess of dealing with a corner, allowing Caleta-Car to prod home on the line.
Lopez saved a Neymar free-kick and Messi had two goals disallowed for offside before PSG were awarded the penalty deep in stoppage time at the end of the half.
Valentin Rongier blocked a shot with his thigh, the ball ricocheting up and striking his elbow, an infringement spotted by the referee after he was invited over to the pitchside monitor.
Mbappe’s successful penalty was his 21st Ligue 1 goal of the season and 32nd in all competitions.
The France star had another effort disallowed for offside in the second half.
Marseille then thought they had snatched a point when William Saliba turned in Dimitri Payet’s late free-kick.
Yet that effort was also disallowed, and PSG held on.
Despite seeing their eight-game winning run come to an end, Marseille remain on course to qualify automatically for the Champions League as they sit three points clear of third-placed Rennes.
Nice are another two points back in fourth after Andy Delort’s late header secured a 2-1 win over Lorient.
Delort had put Nice in front with a penalty early in the second half only for Armand Lauriente to equalise for relegation-threatened Lorient, but Delort then headed in Kasper Dolberg’s 88th-minute cross.
Ambitious Nice, owned by British group Ineos, had gone four games without a win to slide from second to outside the European qualifying spots before this encounter.
Only the top two in France qualify automatically for the Champions League, with third going into the qualifying rounds and fourth into the Europa League.
Lyon bounced back from their midweek Europa League elimination against West Ham United to crush Bordeaux 6-1, leaving their opponents four points from outright safety.
Moussa Dembele and Karl Toko-Ekambi both scored twice and Lyon recorded their biggest win of the season as they seek to salvage European qualification from a disappointing campaign.
They are eighth, four points adrift of fifth-placed Strasbourg, who drew 1-1 at Troyes.
Bottom side Metz are six points from safety after drawing 1-1 with fellow strugglers Clermont.
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Watched the game. I have to say, I sometimes questioned some of the refereee’s decisions during the game (such as multiple high tackles before a yellow card was given).
But I beg to ask what is going on with Connacht. They lost just 2 players form the championship winning team last season, but they’ve lost control of their own basics and skills that made them so successful.
A complete lack of a pre season was a factor, the last 5 minutes sum this up.
Yeah, pre-season couldn’t have gone much worse for them
Maybe a bit of credit to Glasgow and the Ospreys
They both played extremely well
Always felt last seasons pro12 was seriously skewed by the world cup. Teams like ospreys & glasgow really werent at their best. Whereas connacht & scarlets made hay, both are 0-2 so far now. Hope its not a sign of things to come. Although to be fair its been a tough start to the season.
I would expect both to get top 4 with Leinster and Ulster the favourites to be there with them. Improved performance this week from the team but a bad pre-season, injuries and teams becoming more aware in how to play us has been the main factors in our poor start. The defence has been really poor in both games conceding tries from our own half which we weren’t doing for the majority of last season. The half back pairing in both games have been very poor, Marmion seems to have regressed from where he was about 2 seasons ago and Carty’s kicking is a liability at this stage nowhere near good enough for this level, Boshoff cant come soon enough and I would probably go with SO’L in the mean time. It’s still early and we played two excellent teams so I wouldn’t be pushing any panic buttons yet and with Zebre up next we should stop the rot with a win next week.
Makes you worry about Aki’s decision in the summer.
What decision was that?
To head home or speculate about his future or something I missed?
What decision? He was always under contract. No decision to make until next year.
I don’t think the losses of McGinty and Muldowney can be understated. Henshaw is obviously a big loss too (Griffin has been poor so far) but those two were central to launching our attacks last year and were massive defensively. The lack of a proper preseason and the injury list doesn’t help either. Most of the lads looked goosed after an hour tonight.
What gives with that bad pre season? I would have thought preparation wpuld have been meticulous under Pat?
Two of the teams they were supposed to play pulled out.
Not uncommon for surprise champions to have an indifferent start to the season now that they’re the ones to beat. It’s only round 2 of 22 though so it’s a bit early to hold crisis talks but Connacht need to pick it up for the next game.
Connacht need to up their game fast ahead of the ERC
When Connacht were winning last year we barely got a mention in the journal…. Leinster got off to bad start too last year,,,,,, it’ll be grand, they’ll regroup and turn it around…. To early to be in a panic
Poor support from fans again tonight though!
How was it poor support most fans stayed until the end and clapped the players off tonight and 5.7k is a decent crowd for the start of the season.
Fitness is the key issue here, those last 2 tries sum this up, taking the ball in there own half and essentially running over for a try. Zebre couldn’t have come at a better time.
At this stage the top 6 looks far superior to the bottom 6.
They’re really missing henshaw
Muldowney and mcginty not hensaw
@bmul, Dont be silly Henshaw was one of Connachts best players last season. Of course he will be missed!
Henshaw missed most of the Pro 12 games last season. Actually think Muldowney a much bigger loss.
Maybe you should check how many games hensaw played
Such a lengthy match report without mentioning the final score. Did your reporter leave early to file his copy?
Lack of decent preseason training games have hurt them badly but let’s not lose the run of ourselves here. They had a terrible game but showed glimpses of last seasons quality in the first match and made massive improvements to this match. Next week I’ll put money on them winning or at least it being a very tight scoreline and I don’t even know who they’re playing right now. It’s game 2. They didn’t go unbeaten last season either and won it. No need for alarm bells, and this from a leinster supporter. Cudn’t have been happier with a defeat last season, look forward to some great local derby games this year.
For conspiracy theorists 2 Welsh refs 2 games! For honesty missing MacGinty and Aly abilities to defend and force attack. Skills still there fitness improving. O’Leary should be given a chance now. Muls needs help can’t lead the team on his own so far personally I’ve not seen anyone step up to the plate to do so . If there’s leaders there they need to show themselves now before we actually do have a crisis.