A second-half strike by the excellent Blaise Matuidi gave Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 win away to Montpellier on Friday as the French champions maintained their perfect start to the new Ligue 1 season.
Matuidi’s 61st-minute goal gave PSG a win that they deserved for their dominance of possession in a match of few chances on a hot night at the Stade de la Mosson.
The capital club have won their opening three games of the campaign, all without conceding a goal, making this their best start to a season since 1999.
And this result also allowed them to extend their club record run of consecutive Ligue 1 wins to 12, meaning they are now just two more victories short of levelling the overall record held by the Bordeaux side of 2009 that won the title.
Laurent Blanc was the coach of that Bordeaux team and his current PSG side look a cut above the rest of France already this season, although in Montpellier they were facing opponents who had already lost their opening two matches without scoring a goal.
“The most important thing is that the team wins and that is three wins in a row,” man of the match Matuidi told beIN Sports.
Paris were again without Zlatan Ibrahimovic and recent signing Angel di Maria, while Marco Verratti was absent and they lost Javier Pastore to injury early on.
Matuidi added: “Given that we were without players and Javier went off it shows we have a very good squad. We can still do much better but the three points are the most important thing.”
David Luiz came close to giving PSG an early lead, his dipping and swerving free-kick being beaten away by Jonathan Ligali in the Montpellier goal.
The visitors were then dealt a blow as Pastore was forced off with an apparent calf injury inside 10 minutes, his place being taken by Adrien Rabiot.
Chances were fast and few between, with Ezequiel Lavezzi stabbing a shot wide after pouncing on a Jonas Martin mistake on the edge of the box seven minutes before the interval.
Edinson Cavani had the ball in the net shortly after the restart only to be denied by a marginal offside call, while before that Kevin Trapp, the summer signing from Eintracht Frankfurt, excelled at the other end with a fine save to tip over Ramy Bensebaini’s header.
The only goal arrived just after the hour mark, Maxwell exchanging passes with Lavezzi before feeding Matuidi, whose left-foot shot beat Ligali at his near post.
It was a second goal in as many games for the tireless France midfielder, who opened the scoring in the 2-0 victory over Gazelec Ajaccio last weekend, and it secured a club-record sixth straight away win in the top flight.
On Saturday, last season’s runners-up Lyon host Rennes before AS Monaco, beaten 3-1 at Valencia in the first leg of their Champions League play-off in midweek, entertain Toulouse.
Marseille, beaten in each of their opening two matches, play their first game under newly-appointed Spanish coach Michel at home against Troyes on Sunday.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE