Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) overcame injuries, VAR and a contrarian Montpellier defence to beat the home side and arrest their slide in the Ligue 1.
Fabian Ruiz, Lionel Messi and Warren Zaïre-Emery scored as Christophe Galtier’s earned another unconvincing 3-1 win to bring an end to their two-game winless run in the league.
The bigger concern for the French Champions is the potential absence of Kylian Mbappe who limped off during the game for what appeared to be a knee injury just weeks out from their game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The forward had the chance to put his side ahead in the 7th minute from the penalty spot after Christopher Jullien had fouled Sergio Ramos. But Mbappe’s effort was saved by Benjamin Lecomte only to get a re-do before being denied a second time.
Mbapped then limped off the field leaving PSG in a precarious situation.
Messi took over the attacking duties and seemingly put his side ahead in the first half before his goal was ruled out by VAR for offside.
The VAR came into play again early in the second half to deny Achraf Hakimi who had thundered the ball in from some distance.
There were eventually no objections when Fabian Ruiz stabbed home the opener in the 55th minute. The Spaniard then turned provider 17 minutes later, finding Messi who scored to double his side’s lead.
Despite holding tough, PSG’s defensive frailties caught up to them in the 89th minute when Arnaud Nordin beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with a slick finish to cue up a tense final few minutes.
Zaïre-Emery sealed the win for PSG over Montpellier with the last kick of the game.
Their win sees PSG open a five-point gap to Marseille in the league table with 51 points.
