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Ousmane Dembele missed a penalty but later scored as Paris Saint-Germain produced a fightback to win 3-1 away at Strasbourg on Saturday and go to the top of the French Ligue 1 table.
PSG were trailing to an early goal by United States star Giovanni Reyna for Strasbourg at the Stade de la Meinau, and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Dembele came off the bench before he put a penalty wide in the 72nd minute.
But Dembele made amends in style, first by setting up Illia Zabarnyi to equalise in the 78th minute and then by putting the reigning French and European champions ahead with five minutes to go.
He then played a part in setting up Desire Doue for PSG’s third in stoppage time, as Luis Enrique’s men made it four straight Ligue 1 wins, and six on the bounce including the Champions League.
“I told him: ‘If you play for 25 minutes and you give an assist and score a goal, you don’t need to play any longer. That is enough’,” Luis Enrique said of Dembele, one of a host of PSG players rested from the starting line-up in between key European games against Manchester City and Barcelona.
“Ousmane and the other players are not machines and they will not always be at their best. There are games over the course of a season where you are not at your best level because that is normal,” added Luis Enrique.
After failing to win any of their first three domestic league matches this season, PSG are up to 14 points from seven games and are therefore top of the standings on goals scored from Lille as well as Monaco, before the principality club visit Lorient on Sunday.
Lille drew 1-1 with Brest, while Rennes, Paris FC and Lyon all have the opportunity to go back above PSG when they play on Sunday.
This game, one of PSG’s toughest domestic tests of the season, fell awkwardly just three days after their 4-2 Champions League victory at City and three days before they host Barcelona.
– Spot-kick woe –
True to form, Luis Enrique therefore made sweeping changes with eight in total from the City game. Dembele was one of those relegated to the bench here with an eye on the meeting with Barcelona, his former side.
Strasbourg sought to take advantage and went in front on 17 minutes when Reyna received a Gessime Yassine pass just inside the area, turned and beat Matvey Safonov low at the goalkeeper’s near post.
The visitors were grateful to Safonov for a superb save to deny Conrad Harder just after half-time, before Luis Enrique sent on some of the cavalry, including Dembele and Doue.
They won a penalty after a VAR check confirmed that a Doue shot had hit the arm of Pape Demba Diop, but Dembele — who scored a penalty in May’s Champions League final win over Arsenal — put his spot-kick wide. Three different PSG players have now missed penalties in their last three games.
“We have lots of players who can take them but it is true that we don’t have one specialist,” said Luis Enrique.
However, Dembele crossed from the right for Ukraine defender Zabarnyi to equalise with a cushioned close-range finish, and then controlled on the edge of the box before firing in to make it 2-1.
That was his first Ligue 1 goal this season to go with three in the Champions League, and Dembele — who is nominated again for this year’s Ballon d’Or — then brought down a long Safonov kick before finding Ferran Torres who set up Doue to seal the win.
Lille were looking to bounce back from a 3-0 Champions League loss at Arsenal when they entertained Brest, but they needed a penalty from 40-year-old Olivier Giroud to get a 1-1 draw.
Lens, France’s other Champions League representative, won 3-1 away at Troyes.