PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain overwhelmed Saint-Etienne 6-1 and moved within touching distance of a record-extending 13th Ligue 1 title on Saturday.
PSG was 22 points ahead of Marseille with seven games left, and meant PSG was guaranteed the title if Monaco and Nice drew in Saturday’s late game.
PSG fell behind early to a well-worked goal when Swedish forward Lucas Stassin headed in Zuriko Davitashvili’s left-wing cross.
But after Gonçalo Ramos equalized with a late first-half penalty, 17th-placed Saint-Etienne collapsed after the break. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia fired PSG ahead and Désiré Doué scored twice either side of a João Neves goal.
The 17-year-old substitute Ibrahim Mbaye completed the rout in the 90th minute with his first goal for PSG.
Earlier, Marseille dominated before falling behind in the 29th. Japan forward Keito Nakamura wrong-footed defender Leonardo Balerdi inside the penalty area and curled the ball in for his ninth league goal.
Careless play led to the second goal as Reims broke from midfield and Nakamura shrugged off Valentin Rongier before setting up Mamadou Diakhon for a left-foot finish.
Valentin Atangana added the third and Rongier pulled one back for inconsistent Marseille, which slipped to its fourth defeat in five games.
Marseille midfielder Adrien Rabiot was scathing about the attitude of some of his teammates.
“It’s just not good enough. I get the impression of watching guys who don’t want to play in the Champions League next season,” Rabiot told broadcaster beIN SPORTS. “If some players don’t want to, then they should say so before the game and just not play.”
It was Reims’ first league win since November.
Ultras protest government crackdown
Several thousand Saint-Etienne fans took to the streets before their game in a protest march against French interior minister Bruno Retailleau’s plan to dissolve the club’s two main ultras groups, the Magic Fans and the Green Angels.
Those at the front carried a giant green banner in the club’s colors, which read “Le Chaudron Ne Se Dissout Pas” (The Cauldron Does Not Dissolve). The Cauldron is the nickname given to Saint-Etienne’s Stade Geoffroy-Guichard because of its intense atmosphere.
Club president Ivan Gazidis joined the fans and made a speech.
“I am very happy to see our city united” he said. “It’s a wonderful response to this unfair process that will resolve nothing.”
Other groups of ultras are also under threat of being disbanded. The French interior ministry said there has been soccer-related violence at 64 matches this season, leading to 627 arrests.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press
