LE HAVRE: French champions Paris St Germain won 4-1 at Le Havre on Friday, capitalising on a late collapse by the hosts to get their Ligue 1 season off to an excellent start.

PSG opened the scoring after three minutes when Goncalo Ramos found Lee Kang-in inside the box and he sent a left-foot shot into the net.

The visitors’ joy was short-lived, however, as Ramos was hurt in a challenge and the Portuguese international had to be replaced by Randal Kolo Muani.

The hosts shocked PSG after the break as Gautier Lloris equalised three minutes in, before Josue Casimir’s goal was disallowed following a VAR decision for handball in the build-up.

Five minutes before the end of the game, however, the Le Havre defence went missing.

Ousmane Dembele headed home five minutes from time, Bradley Barcola added a third and Kolo Muani completed the rout from the penalty spot.

PSG coach Luis Enrique was pleased with his team’s performance.

“It wasn’t easy at all,” he told reporters. “Maybe we started too calmly. We scored a goal very quickly and that relaxed us a bit too much.”

The French international trio of Kolo Muani, Dembele and Barcola all began the game on the bench, while Portugal midfielder Joao Neves came on at half-time for his debut after joining from Benfica for a fee that could reach 69.9 million euros ($76.7m) including bonuses.

Yet Le Havre will wonder what might have been had a Casimir goal not been disallowed.

“We had highs and lows, but the substitutes did a lot of good for us,” added Luis Enrique. “The final score disguises the fact that there are things to improve upon. We gave away lots of easy balls and had we gone 2-1 down that might have changed everything.”

The injury to Ramos was, however, a serious blow to PSG.

“I’m not a doctor but I think it looks like a serious injury. I don’t know how many weeks he will be out,” Luis Enrique said.

The French club said on Saturday that the Portuguese striker needs ankle surgery and will be sidelined for three months.

“He has a serious ankle ligament injury that will need surgery in the coming days,” the club said of the 23-year-old former Benfica star.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2024