PSG ride on their luck to return to the summit

PARIS: Paris St Germain rode their luck to wrest back top spot in the French League from Lyon on Sunday – an own goal from Cameroon defender Aurelien Chedjou enough to land three points against Lille at Parc des Princes.

Chedjou was the villain of the piece for the visitors, who might easily have taken a point had he not deflected home a loose ball after Lille keeper Steeve Elana parried a cross from Ezequiel Lavezzi midway through the second half.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men could have had more goals as Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit the post with a sweetly-struck effort while another effort from the same player stretched Elana.

But Lille also had cause to feel hard done before the break as Ronny Rodel in appeared to have opened the scoring from a corner kick – only for colleague Nolan Roux to be given offside.

Television replays suggested the referee’s call was harsh as PSG survived to stand clear of Lyon on goal difference with both clubs on 45 points from 22 games, three ahead of Marseille, held 2-2 on Saturday by Rennes.

After Tulio de Melo had hit the woodwork in another scare for the home fans PSG held out, which was a boon for Italian keeper Salvatore Sirigu, who during the game set a club-record of minutes without conceding a Ligue 1 goal.

After the opening 12 minutes, Sirigu passed the mark of 697 minutes set by former France international shot-stopper Bernard Lama back in 1996 and his clean sheet stretched the record by another 78 minutes.

Sirigu last conceded a goal in the 35th minute of a Nov 17 loss to Rennes and he has since kept his net clean seven times.

The overall French record belongs to former Bordeaux keeper Gaetan Huard, who in 1993 was unbeaten for 1,176 minutes – more than 13 matches.

Earlier on Sunday, former French giants St Etienne kept their hopes of qualifying for Europe next season alive with an easy 3-0 win over Bastia.

On Friday, Lyon shrugged off a constant stream of transfer speculation surrounding key players and a difficult start to the New Year on the pitch by going to Valenciennes and winning 2-0 courtesy of goals by Gueida Fofana and Bafetimbi Gomis.

Marseille were then frustrated on Saturday by Rennes in an entertaining contest.

OM led at the interval thanks to a strike from Ghana star Andre Ayew.

However, they were pegged back just before the hour mark when defender Kevin Theophile-Catherine powerfully headed home a rightwing corner.

Ayew’s brother Jordan put Marseille back in front with just seven minutes remaining after Morgan Amalfitano sent in a tantalising cross but in the 88th minute, Rennes rescued the point they deserved through Romain Alessandrini’s header which left his side fourth. — AFP