A blistering PSG counterattack finished off by substitute Angel Di Maria's deft lob ensured the Parisians held on to claim three points.
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Paris Saint- Germain defeated Brest 4-2 on Friday night at Stade Francis-Le Ble, in an exciting encounter. Ander Herrera opened the scoring in the 23rd minute followed by Kylian Mbappe extending the lead in the 36th minute. Brest pulled one back through Frank Honarat before the break. After the restart, the pace of the game dropped a bit and midfielder Idrissa Gueye restored PSG’s two-goal lead with a long ranger in the 73rd minute. Although the home side reduced the deficit in the 85th minute through Steve Mounie, Angel De Maria sealed the victory for PSG with a late strike.
PSG were without their high profile new recruitment Lionel Messi, who is yet to make his debut for the Parisians since joining from Barcelona. Along with the Argentine, Sergio Ramos and Neymar were also missing.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side started brightly and Mbappe was denied by Brest goalkeeper Marco Bizot within three minutes of kick-off. Italian midfielder Marco Verratti went close to finding the back of the net, but Herrera was the player who opened the scoring through a volley. The Brest defence failed to properly clear Mbappe’s cross and Herrera volleyed the ball from the edge of the box and into the goal off the left post.
Mbappe then made the score 2-0 as he latched onto a rebound from Giorgino Wijaldum’s shot with a follow-up header. Meanwhile three minutes from the break, Romain Faivre released Honarat with a clever back-heel and the 25-year-old Frenchman fired under the body of PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas to make the score 1-2 for Brest.
Brest forward Irwin Cardona could have levelled the score after restart. Instead, Gueye scored PSG’s third goal of the night with a rasping shot from 35-meters which beat Bizot inside the near post, with the goalkeeper guilty of not doing better.
In response, Brest tested Navas at the other end. Ronael Pierre- Gabriel’s shot was saved by the Costa Rican with Honorat’s attempt from the rebound hitting the woodwork. However, five minutes from time, Olivier Dall’ Oglio’s side made the score 2-3 courtesy of Mounie’s powerful shot.
Substitute Di Maria capitalised on a break away move in response, as the Brest players pushed up for the equalizer. The Argentine winger sealed the victory with a sublime lob from the edge of the penalty area to make the score 4-2 in stoppage time. It was a second successive win for PSG.
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino expressed a desire to see his players operate as a unit, following the triumph.
“We have a lot of names of players that shine, but we have to build a team – that’s the challenge. It won’t be easy. We have to find a balance between the talents that we have. It will take time.”
Reflecting on his side’s victory to start their title charge, Pochettino said: “It was a very close match. We started well – we led 2-0 by dominating the match. We should have scored one more goal, we should have been more realistic. It was an open game that gave the opponents some chances.”
“We suffered in the last ten minutes. I’m very happy to take three points on a difficult ground against a team that has started the season well. We are at the start of the season, we can see how difficult it is for all the teams to win a game. There are things to improve in attack and defence. We need more offensive automatisms. to create spaces against low blocks. In defence, we have to prevent the transition play which can hurt.”
