Kolo Muani gets Paris St-Germain over the line against Nantes in Ligue 1
The hosts would have perhaps been forgiven for having their minds on a crucial upcoming UEFA Champions League trip to Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, but Kylian Mbappe certainly didn’t look distracted, drawing a save from Alban Lafont inside the opening 20 seconds.
At the other end, Florent Mollet - who got the winner against Nice last weekend in Jocelyn Gourvennec’s first game in charge of the Canaries - stung the palms of Arnau Tenas, making his full PSG debut due to the suspension of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Mbappe was predictably his team’s main outlet, with another shot of his blocked smartly by visiting centre-back Eray Comert, while midway through the first half, Lee Kang-in’s curled effort drifted wide of Lafont’s far post.
However, Nantes’ resistance was eventually broken on 41 minutes when Barcola played an incisive one-two with Vitinha and sped into the box away from Marcus Coco to sidefoot home with aplomb.
Despite his men bossing possession before the break, however, Luis Enrique will have wanted them to create more clear-cut opportunities.
And to compound matters, with 55 minutes on the clock, their obdurate opponents levelled proceedings as Mollet’s dangerous corner was met by a superb leap from Mostafa Mohamed to stun the Parc des Princes.
Barcola then looked to re-establish PSG’s advantage but dinked over Lafont and off target, with Enrique subsequently bringing on 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery and Ousmane Dembele in an effort to force the issue.
Not for the first time this evening, referee Jerome Brisard chose not to award a penalty to Mbappe after the 24-year-old was seemingly caught in the area by a trailing leg. As the tension mounted, an inviting Achraf Hakimi cross was not read by any of his teammates prior to Ronael Pierre-Gabriel and Jean-Charles Castelletto making vital defensive interventions.
But after Jean-Kevin Duverne brought down Dembele, Vitinha’s resulting free-kick was headed down by Lucas Hernandez and saved by Lafont, with Kolo Muani almost apologetically converting the rebound.
Marcos Asensio’s wild effort prevented the conclusion of this encounter from being more comfortable for PSG, but they now head to Germany with a further spring in their step, while Nantes have to wait until next Sunday against Brest to lick their wounds.
