PSG Suffers First Season Loss

Paris St Germain suffered its first defeat of the season in any competition with Strasbourg ending the runaway leaders’ aura of invincibility in Ligue 1 with a 2-1 victory at the Stade de la Meinau, December 2.

PSG, that had been expected to stretch its 10-point lead with some comfort at Strasbourg (17th in the league), was on the end of a major shock as a 65th-minute goal from Stephane Bahoken ended their total 22-match unbeaten sequence, Marca reported.

Strasbourg had gone ahead through the inspirational Nuno Da Costa after 13 minutes but normal service seemed to have been resumed when Kylian Mbappe equalized three minutes before halftime. Despite having to soak up huge pressure after Bahoken again gave Strasbourg the lead, the newly promoted side survived the onslaught for a famous win, the first by any team over PSG in the league this season after their 13 wins and two draws.

The defeat gives PSG’s distant pursuers fresh hope with Monaco narrowing the gap to nine points after a 1-0 victory against Angers.

Even having rested the top scorer Edinson Cavani with an eye on Tuesday’s Champions League match at Bayern Munich, PSG had the luxury of bringing back the talented Mbappe. Yet the Parisians were quickly rocked by the home side’s physicality and Dimitri Lienard’s free kick saw the excellent Cape Verdean Da Costa take advantage of lax marking to head home his fourth goal of the season.

PSG was let down by poor finishing but Mbappe scored his fifth league goal of the campaign before Javier Pastore hit the post just before halftime.

Yet with Unai Emery’s men looking to forge ahead, Strasbourg hit them on the break, goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara’s clearance being flicked on by Da Costa into the path of Bahoken, who smashed in a right-foot shot.

From then on, the 25,000-strong crowd must have feared the fairytale would not last against Neymar and company, especially when Cavani was introduced for the last 15 minutes.

When the Uruguayan did get his chance in the eighth of the nine minutes of added time with the Strasbourg goal under siege, the injured Kamara’s replacement Alexandre Oukidja blocked Cavani’s ricocheted effort after Adrien Rabiot’s shot.

Neymar was booked as PSG’s frustration grew and he suffered his first defeat since his world-record transfer from Barcelona.