Brazilian duo Lucas and Marquinhos gave Paris Saint-Germain a 2-0 win at Stade Malherbe Caen Calvados on Wednesday, ending a run of three successive draws and moving the champions into second spot.
The victory was also the perfect tonic ahead of next Tuesday’s mouth-watering UEFA Champions League duel against Barcelona in Paris.
The win, their first since early August and the first away from home this season, put PSG three points behind leaders and bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille in the Ligue 1 table.
Despite missing star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a heel injury, PSG still had too much class for Caen.
Lucas put them 1-0 up after 17 minutes, easily brushing off two defenders, before firing home past Remy Vercoutre in the Caen goal.
Fellow Brazilian Marquinhos added the second 10 minutes into the second half when he headed in a corner from Jean-Christophe Bahebeck, with the ball evading the desperate attempts of N’Golo Kante to clear.
“Our level of play isn’t of the same brilliance as last year, but we are getting closer to it, little by little,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said.
LOSC Lille Metropole slumped to their first Ligue 1 defeat of the season, a 1-0 loss at OGC Nice shattering their hopes of moving into second place.
It was Lille’s first away setback since February when Nice also got the better of them, also by a single goal.
On Wednesday, it was their former player Mathieu Bodmer who secured Nice’s third home win of the season with a 41st-minute header from a corner.
Lille are fifth in the table, four points off the lead.
Olympique Lyonnais, the seven-time champions, were the night’s biggest winners with a 4-0 home win over Lorient.
Nabil Fekir scored twice, with Alexandre Lacazette and 21-year-old Clinton N’Jie also on target.
Highly-rated Cameroon star N’Jie had earlier signed a new five-year deal with Hubert Fournier’s side and marked the occasion in style with his first goal for the club.
AS Monaco recorded their third win in three games to shake off their early season slump which had seen them slip to bottom place.
After a Champions League win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen and a 1-0 win against En Avant de Guingamp, Monaco needed a stoppage-time winner from substitute Valere Germain to beat Montpellier Herault.
Monaco are now comfortably in mid-table with 10 points.
“We had to wait until injury-time to score, but the win was deserved,” Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim said.
In Wednesday’s other matches, Evian Thonon Gaillard defeated Racing Club de Lens 2-1, Metz won 1-0 at En Avant de Guingamp and Nantes held SC Bastia to a goalless draw.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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