PARIS: Paris St Germain continued their march towards the Ligue 1 title with a 4-1 win at home against Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday with all the goals coming in an explosive first half.

Runaway leaders PSG moved to 66 points, 11 ahead of second-placed AS Monaco with five matches left, while Lyon are eighth with 41 points.

PSG struck twice within six minutes with Lyon’s Nemanja Matic deflecting a cross into his own net after three minutes, before Lucas Beraldo doubled the hosts’ lead.

Goncalo Ramos headed in the third goal for PSG after 32 minutes before Ernest Nuamah pulled one back for Lyon five minutes later with a well-placed shot into the corner from just outside the box.

Ramos scored his second three minutes before the break when he ran into the box unmarked to slide in a low cross.

Both sides produced chances in the second half, but neither managed to add more goals.

Lyon will have a chance for revenge when the two sides face each other in the French Cup final on May 25.

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 beat 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.

Olympique Marseille needed a stoppage-time goal by Cameroonian striker Faris Moumbagna to grab a point in a 2-2 draw at Toulouse and sit ninth in the table.

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.

Published in Dawn, April 23nd, 2024