Paris cedes the leadership chair to Monaco. Traveling to Nice, PSG had to settle for a draw on Sunday at the end of the 7th day of Ligue 1 (1-1). The debates were contested and Ali Abdi opened the scoring for the Gym (39th). Nuno Mendes responded in the second half (52nd). Luis Enrique’s players only pocket one point and are in second place in the rankings, two points behind the ASM. Nice is ninth.
With Ousmane Dembélé back as a starter on the right wing and Randal Kolo Muani up front, PSG quickly got their foot on the ball at the Alianz Riviera. He especially came up against fierce Nice pressing and impactful transitions. Evann Guessand overwhelmed Willian Pacho and placed two very dangerous cross-shots in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s cage (4th and 6th). Mohamed-Ali Cho forced the Parisian goalkeeper to relax on his line to divert his head on a cross from the active Jonathan Clauss (13th).
Abdi shines late
At first very sterile, the collective control of the visitors still paid off and Nice fell back and suffered. Youssouf Ndayishimiye repelled a shot from Bradley Barcola while Marcin Bulka was beaten (27th). The Polish goalkeeper responded more to the heavy recovery from Nuno Mendes (37th). Paris was pushing hard but Nice was able to attack on the counter-attack and obtain a corner on which Abdi scored with a 20-meter axial rebound (1-0, 39th). Arriving at the Gym this summer from Caen, the 30-year-old Tunisian international opened his account in the elite.
After the break, Luis Enrique replaced the too discreet Kolo Muani with Kang-In Lee who quickly brought technical quality to his stalls. The active Dembélé called on Bulka (47th) to obtain a corner on which he served Nuno Mendes behind in the axis. The Portuguese left-back imitated Abdi by scoring with a low 20-meter rebound (1-1, 52nd). He also scored his first goal of the season but the third of his career in L1.
Paris still stalls outside
Paris was galvanized and its captain Marquinhos only found the post on a diving header from a new corner and cross from Lee (54th). The Brazilian central defender also narrowly avoided the csc by diverting a dangerous cross from Clauss (59th). Masters of the ball (72% in the end), the Parisians pushed but Bulka captured the shot from the incoming Vitinha (75th) then that of Dembélé (85th) before flying away to divert another distant attempt from the Portuguese (89th ).
As during its previous trip to Reims (1-1), PSG only won a draw. With the addition of his defeat at Arsenal in the Champions League (2-0), his week of travel was not fruitful. The point taken is more the business of Nice who had sunk at Lazio in the Europa League (4-1) but found the necessary resources not to give in again.
