Ligue 1: PSG takes on OL after a sluggish shock

The 15th day of Ligue 1 ended this Sunday with an XXL clash between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais who came out of two victorious European meetings in the middle of the week. In good shape for several months and undefeated since the end of September, Les Gones wanted to end the year with a bang in Ligue 1 with a prestigious success at the Parc des Princes. To do this, Pierre Sage decided to line up a fairly reworked eleven with a Cherki-Mikautadze-Nuamah attack. On the other side, Luis Enrique decided to align Lucas Beraldo in central defense and chose to put Désiré Doué on the left wing in place of Bradley Barcola. From then on, everything was in place to witness a promising shock. And finally, PSG got their evening off to a perfect start. While Clinton Mata kept the danger away with a dangerous attempt from Warren Zaire-Emery (5th), Paris opened the scoring after a great inspiration from Désiré Doué. Depositing Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the right side, the former Rennais entered the area before serving Ousmane Dembélé behind. The former Barça player did not tremble and deceived Lucas Perri perfectly with a beautiful cross shot (1-0, 8th). In full swing against a petrified Lyonnais, the Parisians even doubled the lead a few minutes later. Benefiting from a logical penalty after an obstruction by Tolisso on Doué, the locals took off thanks to the composure of Vitinha from the penalty spot (2-0, 14th). An ideal start for the Parisians who drowned the Lyonnais who took time to get back on their feet. Finally, thanks to the technical mastery of Rayan Cherki, OL regained slight control over their match. Finishing the first period strongly, the visitors reduced the gap to the mark just before the break thanks to a brilliant action from Cherki. Found full axis at 25 meters and surrounded by three Parisians, the Rhone number 18 found Georges Mikautadze with a hidden pass delight. The Georgian, with great confidence, deceived Donnarumma with a clever lob (2-1, 40th).

Just before the break, OL could even have come back to the level but Jordan Veretout completely missed against the Italian goalkeeper of the capital club (44th). A good mark nevertheless for the Gones who found their football again and who had reason to hope to turn the situation around when they returned from the locker room. Ultimately, the show was not there. During a much more sluggish and much less brilliant second period, the Lyonnais were unable to show this extra soul. The Parisians were even able to get the best opportunities, like a goal denied to Désiré Doué following a superb action (52nd). Problem, Achraf Hakimi was offside at the start of the action. Following this new opportunity in Paris, the match ended. There were no more opportunities to report on both sides and Pierre Sage even made particularly questionable tactical choices by bringing out his attack shortly after the hour mark. Bringing out his Cherki metronome, the Lyon tactician completely missed his bet tactics and Lyon’s chances were not dangerous enough to put Les Gones back on their feet. Heading towards a defeat during which they were unrecognizable, the Rhone residents even conceded a third goal when Gonçalo Ramos took advantage of an error from Lucas Perri to finish in the empty goal (3-1, 88th). With this goal which buried Lyon’s last hopes, PSG collected an eleventh victory this season in the elite. A success which allows it to consolidate its first place by taking seven points ahead of its runner-up, Olympique de Marseille. For their part, OL may have regrets. Scuttled by the rather incomprehensible tactical choices of its coach, Lyon did not display its usual face and ended its unbeaten streak of nine matches in all competitions.