Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain scored within the final seconds of harm time to beat Saint-Etienne 3-2 and shut the hole on league chief Lille to at least one level on Sunday.
PSG had simply gifted Saint-Etienne an equalizer within the second minute of harm time when Mauro Icardi rose to move dwelling Angel Di Maria’s cross three minutes later because the substitutes mixed to present PSG a much-needed victory. Kylian Mbappe scored two targets.
There are solely 5 video games left after this weekend in one of many closest title races for a few years. Third-place Monaco gained 3-0 at struggling Bordeaux to remain one level behind PSG and one forward of fourth-place Lyon, which gained 2-1 at Nantes with two targets from Netherlands ahead Memphis Depay.
Lyon hosts Lille subsequent Sunday.
Depay latched onto a intelligent cross from Brazil midfielder Lucas Paqueta to clip the ball over goalkeeper Alban Lafont within the fourth minute, and netted from the penalty spot within the thirty sixth after Lafont fouled ahead Karl Toko Ekambi.
Depay moved above Wissam Ben Yedder into second place within the scoring charts with 18 league targets, however nonetheless 5 behind PSG’s Mbappe.
At Parc des Princes, Mbappe equalized with a superb end within the 78th, one minute after striker Denis Bouanga put the guests forward, and transformed a penalty within the 86th after being fouled by goalkeeper Etienne Green.
PSG gifted the guests a objective when Bouanga was given an excessive amount of house down the left and his shot was poorly handled by goalkeeper Sergio Rico with Romain Hamouma in place to faucet in.
Earlier, PSG winger Pablo Sarabia struck the publish with a free kick after half-hour and Green _ a former membership ball boy _ made his first save 5 minutes later from Rafinha’s low shot.
In between, Saint-Etienne winger Wahbi Khazri had a objective dominated out for offisde.
Pochettino made a triple substitution halfway via the second half, bringing on midfielder Marco Verratti, Di Maria and Icardi.
Di Maria failed to shut down on the left and overlapping full again Miguel Trauco had loads of time to select Bouanga’s close-range end.
But Saint-Etienne was napping on the restart.
Verratti’s lengthy ball excessive was expertly managed by Mbappe with the skin of his foot and he slid it underneath Green for 1-1.
Pochettino’s first sport answerable for PSG was additionally in opposition to Saint-Etienne in January and led to a draw.
He was considerably lucky this time, whereas Claude Puel stated his younger Saint-Etienne facet paid for an absence of composure.
“It really hurts to concede a goal 15 seconds from time … We scored a great first goal, but celebrated it far too much and conceded straight after,” Puel stated. “We didn’t get our reward due to some inexperience. We paid dearly for it, so there are a lot of regrets.”
Lille dropped factors when it was held 1-1 at dwelling to Montpellier on Friday.
CLINICAL MONACO
Striker Kevin Volland put Monaco forward within the twenty eighth from strike accomplice Wissam Ben Yedder’s cross, winger Gelson Martins struck simply after the break and substitute Stevan Jovetic headed in a late third.
Monaco has misplaced solely as soon as previously 21 video games general.
OTHER MATCHES
Lens drew 1-1 at Brest and is just one level forward of sixth-place Marseille within the chase for fifth spot, a Europa League place.
Last-place Dijon ended a run of 12 league defeats with a 2-0 dwelling win in opposition to midtable Nice.
Also, it was: Nimes 1, Strasbourg 1; and Reims 0, Metz 0.
