A lacklustre start to the contest soon erupted into life around the half-hour mark. After Lionel Messi slotted Neymar through on goal, the Brazilian was hacked to the ground by Christophe Hérelle, leading to his dismissal. However, VAR would hand the visitors a reprieve, as Neymar was offside. Moments later, the two former Barcelona teammates would combine again to devastating effect and hand Les Parisiens the lead. Neymar controlled the pass over the defence with an incredible touch, before coolly slotting past Marco Bizot.
Brest were hanging on with the HT whistle approaching, as the defending champions looked to press home their advantage. Kylian Mbappé found the net but was offside in the build-up, before he forced Bizot into a smart save from close range, keeping the deficit to one at the interval.
Christophe Galtier saw his side’s performance tail off after the break in their midweek victory over Juventus, and would have wanted to avoid a repeat of that here. The hosts were a matter of inches away from doubling the lead within minutes of the restart though, as Messi met Mbappé’s cross, but the Argentina international saw his header rebound off the post.
See stats from the match at Flashscore
An unlikely route back into the game arrived for the visitors, as Presnel Kimpembe was penalised for fouling Noah Fadiga inside the area. Islam Slimani stepped up to take the spot-kick, but the imposing Gianluigi Donnarumma made a superb save from 12 yards.
After the penalty was stopped, Michel der Zakarian’s men failed to create the necessary chances to get back into the contest, meaning they’ve now lost all of the last 12 H2Hs with PSG. For the defending champions though, a 16th consecutive league match without defeat returns Les Parisiens to the Ligue 1 summit, averaging over three goals per game.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain)
