Paris Saint-Germain warmed up for their decisive Champions League date with Chelsea by recording a routine 4-1 home win against struggling Lens on Saturday that took them provisionally to the top of Ligue 1.
A David Luiz free-kick just before half-time and a Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty on the hour mark put Laurent Blanc’s side in control at the Parc des Princes, and substitutes Blaise Matuidi and Javier Pastore made sure of the points after Yoann Touzghar had reduced the deficit.
The result took the defending champions two points clear at the top, although Lyon can reclaim first place if they win at Montpellier on Sunday evening.
Paris remain unbeaten at home this season and have now gone 14 games without losing in all competitions, and those records were never really in danger of ending against such limited opposition.
However, Blanc will be aware of the need for an improved display against Chelsea, with the last-16 tie level at 1-1 and PSG needing to score in the second leg at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals for the third season running.
“First and foremost we had to make sure we won this game to go top of the table, so it was job done,” said Blanc.
“But the context of the Chelsea game is different. They are a top-level team so we can’t compare this game today with that one.”
He added: “I think we will create fewer chances at Stamford Bridge than today, so we will need to be more clinical, because even although we got four goals here we were not clinical enough.”
With the Chelsea game in mind, Blanc rested Thiago Silva and left Marquinhos, Matuidi and Edinson Cavani on the bench against a Lens side nine points adrift of safety and without a win in eight league games in 2015.
The home side started well on a beautiful early spring day in Paris and almost took the lead in the 14th minute when Marco Verratti fed Ibrahimovic, but the Swedish striker drilled his shot against the bar and over.
– Squandered –
Rudy Riou clawed away a David Luiz header before Ibrahimovic squandered a gilt-edged opportunity, seeing his attempted chip go straight into the arms of Riou after being played through on goal by Adrien Rabiot.
Lens eventually settled into the contest and looked set to hold out until half-time on level terms until PSG won a free-kick a minute before the interval and David Luiz’s low strike from 35 yards swerved into the bottom-right corner of the net.
Ezequiel Lavezzi was denied a tap-in by a miraculous last-gasp challenge by Ludovic Baal shortly after the restart, but the capital club doubled their lead on the hour mark as Gregory van der Wiel was fouled in the box and Ibrahimovic converted the resulting penalty for his 12th league goal of the season.
Touzghar converted a cross from the left to reduce the arrears on 69 minutes, but Blanc sent on Cavani, Matuidi and Pastore for the final stages and the latter two both got their names on the scoresheet towards the end.
First Pastore’s low ball to the back post was turned in by Matuidi with 10 minutes left, and three minutes after that Pastore thumped home a volley after a delightful one-two with Ibrahimovic.
There was still time for Van der Wiel to crash a shot off the bar, but the win was a fine response from PSG to Marseille’s superb 6-1 victory at Toulouse on Friday night.
Fourth-placed Monaco, France’s other Champions League representatives, also won on Saturday, triumphing 3-1 away at Evian to move back to within six points of Marseille in third with a game in hand.
Anthony Martial and Almamy Toure scored for the principality side either side of an own-goal by Kassim Abdallah that followed some superb play by Dimitar Berbatov.
A Diego Rolan brace, including a 95th-minute penalty, gave Bordeaux a 2-1 win at in-form Caen that put them fifth, while there were also victories for Rennes, Bastia and Reims.