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Danilo Pereira scored the late winner in Paris Saint-Germain’s 2-1 victory over fourth-placed Lorient and cemented their hold on the top spot in Ligue 1 on Sunday.
The win restored PSG’s five-point lead over Lens, who beat Angers on Saturday.
Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier made four changes from the team that won at Juventus on Wednesday.
And one of the stars who kept his place, Kylian Mbappe, went out five minutes before the end of the match, but Galtier said that the French striker did not suffer an injury that might threaten him. Globalism Glass.
“It’s stress related to the sequence of matches,” Galtier said.
“It’s a very busy schedule, with some anxiety. Everyone is listening to their bodies in the run-up to the World Cup. There can be fear.”
Paris Saint-Germain started pressing hard.
Neymar gave Paris Saint-Germain the lead after nine minutes. Brazilian goalkeeper Yvonne Mvugu closed and stopped his clearance.
The ball ran wide to Hugo Ekitike, replacing Lionel Messi in the starting line-up. Ikéteq gave the ball back to Neymar, who danced around Mfugo and smashed the ball into the net.
The goal was Neymar’s 11th in the league this season, making him equal top scorer in the French league with Mbappe.
Mvugu, the back-up goalkeeper for Switzerland who qualified for the World Cup, was injured while preparing for the goal.
“There is necessarily a little concern, but it is too early to judge,” said Lorient coach Regis Loprais.
Mvugu was replaced by former Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Manione, who saved a header from Sergio Ramos, a shot from Mbappe and an Ikétic attack all before half-time.
Gideon Kalulu also cleared an Achraf Hakimi shot off the line just before the break.
The Parisians, who returned to a five-man defense after playing four in defense in their previous four matches, did not give the home team many opportunities in the first half.
“The first was in our favour,” Galtier said, “we started big, we managed to win the ball very quickly. We opened the scoring and had three or four chances to score a second.
“When you play game after game, you have to start strong and try to hurt the opponent.”
Lorient, who drew at home to Paris Saint-Germain last December and beat them when they last lost in Ligue 1 the previous season, did not give up.
They equalized in the 53rd minute when Terem Mouffe ran on a pass from Vincent Le Goff and fired a shot just inside the near post and into the roof of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal.
– ‘Go to victory’ –
The Nigerian striker came close to the second after four minutes when his shot hit the crossbar.
PSG tightened their defense but struggled to get forward.
They had to rely on set pieces.
From a precise Neymar corner, Pereira took advantage of light defenses to restore PSG’s lead with a powerful header in the 81st minute.
Neymar’s assist was his ninth this season, and the second in the league, after the absence of teammate Messi.
“He’s making a lot of effort,” Galtier said.
“Obviously he’s very excited about the World Cup…but for me there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be involved in the second part of the season.”
The defeat meant, surprisingly, that early rivals Lorient went three games without winning.
Marseille ended a run of four consecutive matches without a win in the league to move past Lorient, who had fallen to sixth, to finish fourth with a 1-0 win over Laurent Blanc’s Lyon.
Central defender Samuel Gigot scored the only goal shortly before half-time as OM bounced back from being knocked out of Europe by Tottenham in midweek.
Rennes moved up to third place despite a 1-1 draw with Lille, while Nice extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to six matches with a 1-0 win over Brest.
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