Paris Saint-Germain escaped a painful defeat on Wednesday evening visiting Lorient. OGC Nice simultaneously grabbed second place in Ligue 1 thanks to Justin Kluivert.
PSG have nothing to fear in view of the large lead over the pursuers this season, but had great difficulty getting rid of Lorient on Wednesday evening. Keylor Navas had to save early in the game, but was beaten just before half-time when Thomas Mondoncuit shot beautifully from the edge of the penalty area through the bottom of the bar.
PSG had already hit the post through Lionel Messi at that time and kept looking for the equalizer after the break. Georginio Wijnaldum was soon close, but the biggest chance was for Ángel Di María. The Argentinian got the ball on a silver platter after good work from Messi, but still squandered the opportunity. Messi himself was also close a few times after that, but Lorient held out.
PSG’s defeat seemed unstoppable when Sergio Ramos, who had come into the squad for Nuno Mendes at half-time, was shown twice in a short time in the final phase. With ten men, the multimillion-dollar formation still took a point. Mauro Icardi nodded well from a cross by Achraf Hakimi and thus prevented a failure for the team of coach Mauricio Pochettino.
In the wake of PSG, Nice climbed to second place in the Ligue 1 on Wednesday evening. RC Lens still took the lead via Arnaud Kalimuendo-Muinga, but after the break the southern French turned the game around. Mario Lemina equalized after an hour with a nice volley and eleven minutes before the end Justin Kluivert became the match winner by dribbling in and shooting in the short corner.
Nice is currently in second place, the position where Peter Bosz’s Olympique Lyonnais would undoubtedly have wanted to be. However, the seven-time champion of France finds himself back in the middle bracket, and that did not change after the duel with FC Metz. Boubacar Traoré had a quick response to Castello Lukeba’s 1-0, which prevented Lyon from winning for the fourth time in a row.