It is a victory tinged with concern. Paris Saint-Germain won 3-1 on Wednesday February 1 in Montpellier, returning to success after two consecutive defeats. But Kylian Mbappé came out injured after twenty minutes of the match. Thirteen days before the Champions League shock against Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes, this injury is very bad news for the club.
Everything went wrong for Mbappé, who started his match by missing two penalties in quick succession, the referee having decided to withdraw the first, already stopped by Benjamin Lecomte. Then the 2018 world champion, hit in the left thigh, had to give up his place after 20 minutes.
The only satisfaction for the troops of Christophe Galtier, who defeated Montpellier on goals from Fabian Ruiz, Lionel Messi and Warren Zaire-Emery, is to have contained Olympique de Marseille, new runner-up after their success in Nantes (2- 0) and still maintained at five points.
OM winner against Nantes
The Marseillais did not create huge chances at La Beaujoire but were able to take advantage of a gross defensive error from Nantes, opening the scoring after the break on an own goal from the unfortunate Joao Victor. Then Azzedine Ounahi, one of the Moroccan heroes of the 2022 World Cup, doubled the bet at the end of the match for his big debut in the colors of Olympians.
OM took advantage of the failure of Lens, defeated at Bollaert by Nice (1-0) and now 3rd. The Sang et Or mark time with this second game without a win while the Aiglons have been reinvigorated since the arrival at the controls of Didier Digard and are in 8th position after a sluggish first part of the season under the orders of Lucien Favre.
Monaco (4th), winner of Auxerre (3-2), and Rennes (5th), which easily disposed of Strasbourg thanks to a double from Amine Gouiri (3-0), hold the other two European places.
Reims still invincible
The reunion with the rebellious public of Groupama Stadium, however, did not go as the Lyonnais would have liked, unable to dominate Brest (0-0).
Reims (11th) continues to make a strong impression. Three days after bringing back a draw from Paris at the last second (1-1), the Champenois stretched their beautiful series of invincibility to 13 games against Lorient (4-2). Will Still’s men were able to count on the insolent success of Folarin Balogun, author of a hat-trick and now at the top of the scoring charts with 14 achievements, one unit ahead of Kylian Mbappé.
Finally, in a duel of badly classified, the red lantern Angers, reduced to 10 in the second half, broke a sad record by being the first Ligue 1 club to concede 13 consecutive defeats against Ajaccio (2-1).