PARIS —
Neymar notched his 10th goal of the
young season but a lethargic Paris
Saint-Germain (PSG) needed a second-half Gianluigi Donnarumma penalty save to
secure a 1–0 win over Brest in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
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The result takes PSG back to the top of the table
and maintains their unbeaten start to the season under new coach Christophe
Galtier.
PSG are two points clear of Lens, who won 1–0
against Troyes on Friday, but Marseille can move level with the champions if
they win at home to Lille later on Saturday.
Despite the result, this was PSG’s least convincing
performance of the season so far, coming against a Brest side who just two
weeks ago lost 7–0 at home to Montpellier.
Paris coach
Christophe Galtier may reflect that he
should have made more changes to his starting line-up, with this match coming
in between their 2–1 midweek Champions League win over Juventus and a long trip
to Israel to play Maccabi Haifa this Wednesday.
Nuno Mendes and captain Marquinhos were the only PSG
players who started against Juventus to be rested, with Juan Bernat and Danilo
Pereira coming in.
Galtier resisted the temptation to rest any of his
superstar front three, telling broadcaster Amazon Prime that he had thought
about leaving out Lionel Messi but realized that the Argentine “doesn’t need a
breather”.
Summer signings
Nordi Mukiele and Carlos Soler
therefore spent the afternoon on the bench, while Spanish international Fabian
Ruiz came on for his debut as a second-half substitute.
There was a lucky escape for Brest in the first half
as defender Christophe Herelle was sent off for bringing down Neymar as the
Brazilian advanced on goal.
VAR confirmed that Neymar was fractionally offside
when Messi played the pass, and Herelle was allowed to stay on the field.
However, the home side scored on the half-hour with
Messi again picking out Neymar, who controlled before sending a shot across goalkeeper
Marco Bizot and into the far corner.
It was his eighth goal in seven league games this
season. He also scored twice in the campaign-opening Champions Trophy against
Nantes.
It was also a seventh assist for Messi, who has
turned into a more reliable maker of goals than goal-scorer since leaving
Barcelona.
The Argentine did hit the post from a
Kylian Mbappe assist early in the second half, while the latter had a goal disallowed for
offside just before the break.
Ultimately PSG were
grateful to Donnarumma. The Italian dived to his left 20 minutes from time to
keep out Islam Slimani’s penalty, awarded following a clumsy foul by Presnel
Kimpembe on Noah Fadiga.
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