Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain got back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory at Rennes to move up to third place in the French league on Sunday.
Midfielder Vitinha, right back Achraf Hakimi and forward Randal Kolo Muani scored to hand Rennes its first defeat of the season. The victory moved PSG level on points with Brest and into third on goal difference, two points behind leader Monaco after eight rounds of games. Rennes dropped to eighth.
Coach Luis Enrique’s PSG was routed 4-1 by Newcastle in the Champions League in midweek and drew its previous game 0-0 against lowly Clermont.
PSG’s nerves were apparent as Rennes started brightly, and forward Arnaud Kalimuendo’s powerful shot was well saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma in the sixth minute.
Vitinha curled PSG ahead from the left of the penalty area in the 32nd minute and Hakimi made it 2-0 four minutes later to settle PSG down for a while.
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But PSG’s weakness at the back was exploited by Rennes in the 56th when forward Amine Gouiri got ahead of central defender Milan Škriniar too easily and beat Donnarumma. Kolo Muani came straight off the bench and turned in Hakimi’s pass to restore PSG’s two-goal lead in the 58th.
PSG star Kylian Mbappé, the league’s top scorer with seven goals, blazed his shot over with the goal at his mercy late on.
Earlier, Gennaro Gattuso secured his first win as Marseille coach and striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got his first league goal for the club in a 3-0 home win against 10-man Le Havre to move up to sixth place.
Gattuso, the former Italy and AC Milan midfielder, took charge after Marcelino stood down amid tensions between fans and club management.
After midfielder Iliman Ndiaye’s cross led to an own-goal from central defender Arouna Sangante in the 18th minute, the former Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal striker Aubameyang scored three minutes later with a clip over the goalkeeper after being set up by Morocco midfielder Amine Harit.
Le Havre midfielder Rassoul Ndiaye was sent off in the 40th minute for a second yellow card, and Aubameyang broke down the right before setting up Ismaila Sarr in the 84th.
Elsewhere, forward Martin Satriano scored in the third minute of injury time as Brest salvaged a 1-1 draw at home to Toulouse, which led through striker Franck Magri’s first-half goal. Fourth-place Brest is two points ahead of Reims in fifth.
OTHER MATCHES
Lyon’s French forward #10 Alexandre Lacazette (L) fights for the ball with Le Havre’s Senegalese defender #93 Arouna Sangante (R). | Photo Credit: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP
Lyon coach Fabio Grosso played alongside Gattuso when Italy won the 2006 World Cup, and came into the French league in similar circumstances, taking charge of Lyon after Laurent Blanc was replaced.
He has yet to win, though, and his side threw away a 3-1 lead in a 3-3 home draw with Lorient.
Veteran striker Alexandre Lacazette scored twice for Lyon but 17-year-old midfielder Eli Junior Kroupi grabbed two for the visitors. Lyon is in 17th place with three points from eight games and one point above last-place Clermont.
Clermont was trailing 4-2 away to Montpellier when the game was abandoned in injury time after a firework thrown from the stands landed next to Clermont goalkeeper Mory Diaw, who received treatment before being stretchered off.
It was not clear if the French league would award Montpellier the win.
Lens drew 1-1 at home to seventh-place Lille in their northern derby.
Second-place Nice is the only side still unbeaten.
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