Late flurry of goals see PSG take opening day win over La Havre
The defending Ligue 1 champions may be without Kylian Mbappé for the first time since 2016, but they wasted little time making a statement of intent.
With just three minutes on the clock, Gonçalo Ramos played the ball to the right wing where Lee Kang-in side-footed a deflected effort beyond the reach of Arthur Desmas.
Sadly for Ramos, his game was cut short in the 20th minute when he hobbled off injured, yet his replacement Randal Kolo Muani almost made an immediate impact, clattering the crossbar with a powerful header.
PSG were dominant during the first half-hour, however, La Havre had the ball in the back of the net when a corner was saved onto the crossbar only to be turned in on the rebound. Unfortunately for Abdoulaye Touré, the would-be equaliser was flagged offside and apart from a penalty-area scramble late in the half, the visitors rarely threatened Gianluigi Donnarumma’s net.
After surviving a late scare at the end of the first period, Le Havre were on level terms shortly after the restart. A deep free-kick was floated towards Gautier Lloris, who sent the ball across goal and all the way in, as several players failed to make contact.
Just six minutes later, Josué Casimir was celebrating after capitalising on poor PSG defending and racing through one-on-one to tuck home, yet the goal was again disallowed, this time for a handball.
An open second half swung in PSG’s favour, with Lee thundering a shot onto the crossbar and Marco Asensio denied by an alert Desmas before the hosts finally pulled away.
Debutant João Neves teed up two goals in two minutes, first providing Ousmane Dembélé with a free header before laying off Bradley Barcola for a sublime curling finish.
Both late goalscorers and Neves had been introduced from the bench and yet another substitute made an impact from the spot when Kolo Muani picked himself up to firmly put the game to bed.
Victory here builds on last season’s undefeated away league record (W13, D4), starting the campaign top of the table where PSG will expect to finish once again come May. As for Le Havre, defeat tonight means Les Ciel et Marine haven’t won an opening league match since 2017/18 (D5, L2).
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain)