Saved by its replacements, PSG overthrow Strasbourg and temporarily take control of Ligue 1

The conquering version of Paris Saint-Germain is still not out in Ligue 1. The reigning French champion experienced another difficult championship match, but escaped from the Strasbourg quagmire (3-1), Saturday October 17, on the 7th day. Trailing for the fourth time this season in just seven days, the Parisians had to fight hard at the end of the match to change the outcome of the evening.

As against Le Mans a week earlier, the entry of the best Parisian players, initially left on the bench by Luis Enrique, changed everything. The Spaniard resumed the bomb squad tactic, borrowed from rugby, at the start of the second half. In the 64th minute, he had already made his five changes, calling to the rescue Désiré Doué, Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi and especially Ousmane Dembélé.

If he once again did not succeed in everything, the outgoing Golden Ball was omnipresent in a 100% Parisian end to the match. After missing the penalty that Désiré Doué had obtained on a shot deflected from the hand by Demba Diop (72nd) - he narrowly missed the target to the right of the goalkeeper - Dembélé offered the equalizer to Illia Zabarnyi thanks to a very good cross to the far post (77th).

We then found the Norman in the role of scorer, with a hook and a victorious strike to give control of the match to his team (85th). It was as the penultimate passer that he distinguished himself on the third and last Parisian goal of the evening, signed Désiré Doué (90th + 3), found by Ferran Torres on the other side of the area and alone to finish.

Thanks to this goal, PSG temporarily overtakes AS Monaco, leader of the championship before this seventh day of Ligue 1, and appears at the top of the ranking for the first time this season. It remains within shooting distance of ASM, which travels to Lorient on Sunday (5:15 p.m.), but also of the potential winner of Paris FC-Rennes (5:15 p.m.) and Lyon, which welcomes Nice in the last match of the day (9:00 p.m.). Lille could have dethroned PSG, but the Dogues were held by Brest (1-1) on Saturday evening.

The RCSA will be able to harbor regrets after having led for almost an hour, after the opening score of Giovanni Reyna (17th). The ex-American promise found himself strangely free on the left side of the Parisian defense and deceived Matvey Safonov by closing his foot to shoot at the near post. The Russian goalkeeper, whose reaction time to this shot was not ideal, then showed himself to be inflexible on his line, making five saves. Above all, he defeated Conrad Harder, diving on an uncrossed header (50th), then pushing a missile from the Swede back onto the post (67th).

When Strasbourg, currently 12th, deplores a third defeat in a row in L1, PSG already has its head turned towards the Champions League clash against Barça on Tuesday at the Parc des Princes. It remains to be seen whether Nuno Mendes, injured at the end of the match and leaving his teammates ten against eleven, will be in the game.