Result: Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 Strasbourg
Date: 23 December 2020
Venue: Parc di Princes
Paris Saint-Germain returned to winning ways Ligue 1 table after thumping Strasbourg 4-0 on Wednesday night.
PSG made five changes from the draw against at Lille, as Kylian Mbappe returne alongside Ander Herrera, Mitchel Bakker, Colin Dagba and Timothee Pembele. Meanwhile, Bafana's Lebogang Mothiba continues to recover from injury.
The hosts survived an early scare in the tenth minute as goalkeeper Keylor Navas denied Jean-Ricner Bellegarde from close range after he charged past Marquinhos inside the box.
Pembele settled the nerves for Thomas Tuchel's charges after getting the opener in the 18th minute with a simple tap-in from a rebound after shot-stopper Eiji Kawashima parried Angel Di Maria's shot on his path.
Rafinha came close to making it 2-0 just before the break with a deflected shot from the edge of the box that was acrobatically tipped over the bar by Kawashima as Strasbourg went to the break trailing only by one goal.
The visitors were fired up after the break as Lionel Carole came close to snatching the equaliser seven minutes inside the second stanza with a well hit strike from 12 yards that was parried away by Navas.
PSG were spurning good chances to kill off the game and they were nearly punished in the last quarter of an hour after Tilo Kehrer gave away possession towards Sanjin Prcic, who took a touch before curling a strike that missed the far post by inches.
However, Mbappe eventually made it 2-0 for the hosts in the last ten minutes with a finish into a gaping net after Di Maria won possession in a dangerous area.
Idrissa Gueye added a third goal for PSG two minutes before time with a smashing low drilled strike from outside the box that found the bottom corner after he was teed up by Julian Draxler.
There was still time for the fourth goal, as Moise Kean completed the rout for Tuchel's men in stoppage time with a tap-in after Kawashima kept out Marco Verratti's dink on his path but PSG remain in third place, still one point shy of top spot after Lille and Olympique Lyonnais, who are both tied on points, won their respective games.
